LINUX COMMAND ATLAS · COMMAND GUIDE

Linux head command

Show the first lines of a file; use -n to choose how many.

GNU Coreutils

Syntax

Command form

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

5 options

Option	What it does
`-n, --lines=NUM`	Print the first NUM lines (default 10).
`-c, --bytes=NUM`	Print the first NUM bytes.
`-q, --quiet`	Never print file headers.
`-v, --verbose`	Always print file headers.
`-z, --zero-terminated`	Treat NUL, rather than newline, as the line delimiter.

3 examples

Show the first lines of a file; use -n to choose how many.

head -n 20 access.log

Show the first 20 lines of a log.

head -n 20 app.log

Inspect the first 64 bytes of a file.

head -c 64 image.bin

When reading from a pipe, head exits after receiving enough input, which can stop upstream commands early.