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HEAD(1) User Commands HEAD(1)

NAME

head - output the first part of files

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

Print the first 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. With more than one FILE, precede each with a header giving the file name. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

print the first K bytes of each file; with the leading '-', print all but the last K bytes of each file
print the first K lines instead of the first 10; with the leading '-', print all but the last K lines of each file
never print headers giving file names
always print headers giving file names
display this help and exit
output version information and exit

K may have a multiplier suffix: b 512, kB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024, GB 1000*1000*1000, G 1024*1024*1024, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y.

GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/> Report head translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

AUTHOR

Written by David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

The full documentation for head is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and head programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info coreutils 'head invocation'

should give you access to the complete manual.

November 2020 GNU coreutils 8.22