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.Dd June 12, 2022 29.Dt HEAD 1 30.Os 31.Sh NAME 32.Nm head 33.Nd display first lines of a file 34.Sh SYNOPSIS 35.Nm 36.Op Fl qv 37.Op Fl n Ar count | Fl c Ar bytes 38.Op Ar 39.Sh DESCRIPTION 40This filter displays the first 41.Ar count 42lines or 43.Ar bytes 44of each of the specified files, or of the standard input if no 45files are specified. 46If 47.Ar count 48is omitted it defaults to 10. 49.Pp 50The following options are available: 51.Bl -tag -width indent 52.It Fl c Ar bytes , Fl -bytes Ns = Ns Ar bytes 53Print 54.Ar bytes 55of each of the specified files. 56.It Fl n Ar count , Fl -lines Ns = Ns Ar count 57Print 58.Ar count 59lines of each of the specified files. 60.Pp 61Both 62.Ar count 63and 64.Ar bytes 65may also be specified with size suffixes supported by 66.Xr expand_number 3 . 67.It Fl q , Fl -quiet , Fl -silent 68Suppresses printing of headers when multiple files are being examined. 69.It Fl v , Fl -verbose 70Prepend each file with a header. 71.El 72.Pp 73If more than a single file is specified, or if the 74.Fl v 75option is used, each file is preceded by a 76header consisting of the string 77.Dq ==> XXX <== 78where 79.Dq XXX 80is the name of the file. 81The 82.Fl q 83flag disables the printing of the header in all cases. 84.Sh EXIT STATUS 85.Ex -std 86.Sh EXAMPLES 87To display the first 500 lines of the file 88.Ar foo : 89.Pp 90.Dl $ head -n 500 foo 91.Pp 92.Nm 93can be used in conjunction with 94.Xr tail 1 95in the following way to, for example, display only line 500 from the file 96.Ar foo : 97.Pp 98.Dl $ head -n 500 foo | tail -n 1 99.Sh SEE ALSO 100.Xr tail 1 , 101.Xr expand_number 3 102.Sh HISTORY 103The 104.Nm 105command appeared in PWB UNIX. 106