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.\" 30.Dd June 12, 2022 31.Dt HEAD 1 32.Os 33.Sh NAME 34.Nm head 35.Nd display first lines of a file 36.Sh SYNOPSIS 37.Nm 38.Op Fl qv 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 52The following options are available: 53.Bl -tag -width indent 54.It Fl c Ar bytes , Fl -bytes Ns = Ns Ar bytes 55Print 56.Ar bytes 57of each of the specified files. 58.It Fl n Ar count , Fl -lines Ns = Ns Ar count 59Print 60.Ar count 61lines of each of the specified files. 62.Pp 63Both 64.Ar count 65and 66.Ar bytes 67may also be specified with size suffixes supported by 68.Xr expand_number 3 . 69.It Fl q , Fl -quiet , Fl -silent 70Suppresses printing of headers when multiple files are being examined. 71.It Fl v , Fl -verbose 72Prepend each file with a header. 73.El 74.Pp 75If more than a single file is specified, or if the 76.Fl v 77option is used, each file is preceded by a 78header consisting of the string 79.Dq ==> XXX <== 80where 81.Dq XXX 82is the name of the file. 83The 84.Fl q 85flag disables the printing of the header in all cases. 86.Sh EXIT STATUS 87.Ex -std 88.Sh EXAMPLES 89To display the first 500 lines of the file 90.Ar foo : 91.Pp 92.Dl $ head -n 500 foo 93.Pp 94.Nm 95can be used in conjunction with 96.Xr tail 1 97in the following way to, for example, display only line 500 from the file 98.Ar foo : 99.Pp 100.Dl $ head -n 500 foo | tail -n 1 101.Sh SEE ALSO 102.Xr tail 1 , 103.Xr expand_number 3 104.Sh HISTORY 105The 106.Nm 107command appeared in PWB UNIX. 108