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 June 12, 2022 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 qv 40.Op Fl n Ar count | Fl c Ar bytes 41.Op Ar 42.Sh DESCRIPTION 43This filter displays the first 44.Ar count 45lines or 46.Ar bytes 47of each of the specified files, or of the standard input if no 48files are specified. 49If 50.Ar count 51is omitted it defaults to 10. 52.Pp 53The following options are available: 54.Bl -tag -width indent 55.It Fl c Ar bytes , Fl -bytes Ns = Ns Ar bytes 56Print 57.Ar bytes 58of each of the specified files. 59.It Fl n Ar count , Fl -lines Ns = Ns Ar count 60Print 61.Ar count 62lines of each of the specified files. 63.Pp 64Both 65.Ar count 66and 67.Ar bytes 68may also be specified with size suffixes supported by 69.Xr expand_number 3 . 70.It Fl q , Fl -quiet , Fl -silent 71Suppresses printing of headers when multiple files are being examined. 72.It Fl v , Fl -verbose 73Prepend each file with a header. 74.El 75.Pp 76If more than a single file is specified, or if the 77.Fl v 78option is used, each file is preceded by a 79header consisting of the string 80.Dq ==> XXX <== 81where 82.Dq XXX 83is the name of the file. 84The 85.Fl q 86flag disables the printing of the header in all cases. 87.Sh EXIT STATUS 88.Ex -std 89.Sh EXAMPLES 90To display the first 500 lines of the file 91.Ar foo : 92.Pp 93.Dl $ head -n 500 foo 94.Pp 95.Nm 96can be used in conjunction with 97.Xr tail 1 98in the following way to, for example, display only line 500 from the file 99.Ar foo : 100.Pp 101.Dl $ head -n 500 foo | tail -n 1 102.Sh SEE ALSO 103.Xr tail 1 , 104.Xr expand_number 3 105.Sh HISTORY 106The 107.Nm 108command appeared in PWB UNIX. 109