HEAD(1) BSD General Commands Manual HEAD(1)NAMEhead — display first lines of a file
SYNOPSIShead [-qv] [-n count] [-c byte_count] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
This filter displays the first count lines of each of the specified
files, or of the standard input if no files are specified. If count is
omitted it defaults to 10. If -c byte_count is specified, head counts
bytes instead of lines.
If more than a single file is specified, or the -v option is used, each
file is preceded by a header consisting of the string “==> XXX ≤=” where
“XXX” is the name of the file. The -q flag disables the printing of the
header in all cases.
The head utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
COMPATIBILITY
The historic command line syntax of head is supported by this implementa‐
tion.
This command is mostly compatible with GNU extensions to head.
SEE ALSOtail(1)STANDARDS
The head utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (“POSIX.2”).
HISTORY
The head utility appeared in 3.0BSD. It was enhanced to include the -c,
-q, and -v options for NetBSD 2.1.
BSD May 4, 2004 BSD