head(1)

head1

Output the first part of files

Usage

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

Overview

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.

-c, --bytes=[-]NUM

print the first NUM bytes of each file; with the leading '-', print all but the last NUM bytes of each file

-n, --lines=[-]NUM

print the first NUM lines instead of the first 10; with the leading '-', print all but the last NUM lines of each file

-q, --quiet, --silent

never print headers giving file names

-v, --verbose

always print headers giving file names

-z, --zero-terminated

line delimiter is NUL, not newline

--help

display this help and exit

--version

output version information and exit

NUM 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, R, Q. Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on.

Releases

19 releases since Debian 1.1 (Buzz); the text changed 15 times.

  1. 1.1
  2. 1.2–2.1
  3. 2.2
  4. 3.0
  5. 3.1
  6. 4.0
  7. 5.0
  8. 6.0
  9. 7
  10. 8
  11. 9
  12. 10
  13. 11
  14. 12
  15. 13
  16. Arch

--zero-terminated since Debian 9 (Stretch); -z since Debian 9 (Stretch).

-l until Debian 1.1 (Buzz).

Author

Written by David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering.

Reporting bugs

Report bugs to: <[email protected]>.
Report any translation bugs to: <https://translationproject.org/team/>.
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

From coreutils 9.12-2 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.