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HEAD(1) User Commands HEAD(1)

NAME

head - output the first part of files

SYNOPSIS

head [OPTION]... [FILE]...

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.

print the first NUM bytes of each file; with the leading '-', print all but the last NUM bytes of each file
print the first NUM lines instead of the first 10; with the leading '-', print all but the last NUM lines of each file
never print headers giving file names
always print headers giving file names
line delimiter is NUL, not newline
display this help and exit
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.

AUTHOR

Written by David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering.

REPORTING BUGS

GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2023 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.

SEE ALSO

tail(1)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/head>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) head invocation'

March 2024 GNU coreutils 9.4