head - output the first part of files
Contents
Copyright
Copyright © 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by law.
Description
Print the first 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. With more than one FILE, precede each with a
header giving the file name.
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
-c, --bytes=[-]NUM
print the first NUM bytes of each file; with the leading '-', print all but the last NUM bytes of
each file
-n, --lines=[-]NUM
print the first NUM lines instead of the first 10; with the leading '-', print all but the last
NUM lines of each file
-q, --quiet, --silent
never print headers giving file names
-v, --verbose
always print headers giving file names
-z, --zero-terminated
line delimiter is NUL, not newline
--help display this help and exit
--version
output version information and exit
NUM may have a multiplier suffix: b 512, kB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024, GB 1000*1000*1000, G
1024*1024*1024, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y, R, Q. Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and
so on.
Name
head - output the first part of files
Reporting Bugs
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
See Also
tail(1) Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/head> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) head invocation' GNU coreutils 9.5 April 2025 HEAD(1)
Synopsis
head [OPTION]... [FILE]...
