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head(1) General Commands Manual head(1) NAME head - Displays the beginning of files SYNOPSIS Current Syntax head [-c bytes] [-n lines] [file...] Obsolescent Syntax head [-lines] [file...] STANDARDS Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry stan- dards as follows: head: XPG4, XPG4-UNIX Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about in- dustry standards and associated tags. OPTIONS The default count is 10. [DIGITAL] Specifies the number of bytes to display. If the last byte written is not a newline character, a newline character is appended to the output. Specifies the number of lines to display Works exactly as -n lines. Obsolescent. OPERANDS Path name of the input file. If you do not specify a file, head reads standard input. DESCRIPTION The head command copies the standard input to standard output, ending output of each file at the specified point. NOTES The obsolescent form is subject to withdrawal at any time. EXIT STATUS The following exit values are returned: Successful completion. An er- ror occurred. EXAMPLES To display the first 5 lines of a file called test, enter: head -n 5 test To display the first ten lines of all files (except those with a name beginning with a period), enter: head * ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The following environment variables affect the execution of head: Pro- vides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value from the default locale is used. If any of the internationalization vari- ables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty string value, over- rides the values of all the other internationalization variables. De- termines the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi- byte characters in arguments and input files). Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error. Determines the location of message catalogues for the process- ing of LC_MESSAGES. SEE ALSO Commands: cat(1), more(1), pg(1), sed(1), tail(1) Standards: standards(5) head(1)