Content-type: text/html
head - Displays the beginning of files
head [-c bytes] [-n lines] [file...]
head [-lines] [file...]
Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards as follows:
head: XPG4, XPG4-UNIX
Refer to the
standards(5)
reference page for more information
about industry standards and associated tags.
The default
count
is 10.
[Compaq] Specifies the number of bytes to display. If the
last byte written is not a newline character, a newline character is appended
to the output.
Specifies the number of lines to display
Works exactly as
-n
lines.
Obsolescent.
Path name of the input file. If you do not specify a
file,
head
reads standard input.
The
head
command copies the standard input to standard
output, ending output of each file at the specified point.
The obsolescent form is subject to withdrawal at any time.
The following exit values are returned:
Successful completion.
An error occurred.
To display the first 5 lines of a file called test, enter: head -n 5 test To display the first ten lines of all files (except those with a name beginning with a period), enter: head *
The following environment variables affect the execution of
head:
Provides a default value for the internationalization variables
that are unset or null. If
LANG
is unset or null, the corresponding value from the default locale is used.
If any of the internationalization variables contain an invalid setting, the
utility behaves as if none of the variables had been defined.
If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of
all the other internationalization variables.
Determines the locale for the interpretation of sequences
of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to
multibyte characters in arguments and input files).
Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic
messages written to standard error.
Determines the location of message catalogues for the processing
of
LC_MESSAGES.
Commands: cat(1), more(1), pg(1), sed(1), tail(1)
Standards: standards(5)