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Command: head | Section: 1 | Source: OpenBSD | File: head.1
HEAD(1) FreeBSD General Commands Manual HEAD(1)
NAME
head - display first few lines of files
SYNOPSIS
head [-count | -n count] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
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 files:
==> file <==
EXIT STATUS
The head utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
EXAMPLES
To display the first 500 lines of the file foo:
$ head -n 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 -n 500 foo | tail -1
SEE ALSO
cat(1), cut(1), less(1), more(1), tail(1)
STANDARDS
The head utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 ("POSIX.1")
specification.
The historic syntax -count is supported by this implementation.
HISTORY
The head utility first appeared in 1BSD.
AUTHORS
Bill Joy, August 24, 1977.
FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8 October 25, 2015 FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8