NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     head - display first few lines of files

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     head [-count | -n count] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The head utility copies the first count lines of each specified file to
     the  standard  output.   If  no files are named, head copies
lines from the
     standard input.  If count is omitted, it defaults to 10.

     The options are as follows:

     -count | -n count
             Copy the first count lines of each input file to the
standard
             output.  count must be a positive decimal integer.

     If more than one file is specified, head precedes the output
of each file
     with the following, in order to distinguish the head of each
file:

           ==> file <==

EXAMPLES    [Toc]    [Back]

     To display the first 500 lines of the file foo:

           $ head -500 foo

     head  can be used in conjunction with tail(1) in the following way to, for
     example, display only line 500 from the file foo:

           $ head -500 foo | tail -1

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     cat(1), less(1), more(1), tail(1)

STANDARDS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The historic command line syntax is supported by this implementation.

     The   head   utility   conforms   to  IEEE  Std  1003.2-1992
(``POSIX.2'').

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     The head utility appeared in 3.0BSD.

OpenBSD     3.6                           July      14,      1993