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head

Article Index
1. Name
2. Synopsis
3. Frequently used options
4. Examples

1. Name

head [man page] - output the first part of files

2. Synopsis

head [OPTION]... [FILE]...

3. Frequently used options

-c, --bytes=[-]N
      print the first N bytes of each  file;  with  the  leading  `-',
      print all but the last N bytes of each file
-n, --lines=[-]N
      print  the first N lines instead of the first 10; with the leading `-', 
      print all but the last N lines of each file

4. Examples

Command head will by default print first 10 lines of a file. Lets prove it by creating test file from /etc/services which contains line numbers.

$ cat /etc/services | nl > /tmp/services.txt

$ head /tmp/services.txt

head command - print first 10 lines of a file

with -n option we can instruct head command to print line numbers.

$ head -n /tmp/services.txt

make head command to print first 5 lines:

$ head -5 /tmp/services.txt

Same as with option -n with option -c we can print out number of bytes to the standard output. Lets do small test:

$ wc -l -c services.txt
$ head -c 22173 /tmp/services.txt | wc -l