1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 13.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 14.\" without specific prior written permission. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 26.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 27.\" 28.\" @(#)head.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 29.\" $FreeBSD$ 30.\" 31.Dd March 16, 2013 32.Dt HEAD 1 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm head 36.Nd display first lines of a file 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38.Nm 39.Op Fl n Ar count | Fl c Ar bytes 40.Op Ar 41.Sh DESCRIPTION 42This filter displays the first 43.Ar count 44lines or 45.Ar bytes 46of each of the specified files, or of the standard input if no 47files are specified. 48If 49.Ar count 50is omitted it defaults to 10. 51.Pp 52If more than a single file is specified, each file is preceded by a 53header consisting of the string 54.Dq ==> XXX <== 55where 56.Dq XXX 57is the name of the file. 58.Sh EXIT STATUS 59.Ex -std 60.Sh EXAMPLES 61To display the first 500 lines of the file 62.Ar foo : 63.Pp 64.Dl $ head -n 500 foo 65.Pp 66.Nm 67can be used in conjunction with 68.Xr tail 1 69in the following way to, for example, display only line 500 from the file 70.Ar foo : 71.Pp 72.Dl $ head -n 500 foo | tail -n 1 73.Sh SEE ALSO 74.Xr tail 1 75.Sh HISTORY 76The 77.Nm 78command appeared in PWB UNIX. 79