HEAD

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
Index Return to Main Contents

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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.

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#hea-c'-c, --bytes=,[-]NUMX'tty: link'/

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

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#hea-n'-n, --lines=,[-]NUMX'tty: link'/

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

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#hea-q'-q, --quiet, --silentX'tty: link'

never print headers giving file names

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#hea-v'-v, --verboseX'tty: link'

always print headers giving file names

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#hea-z'-z, --zero-terminatedX'tty: link'

line delimiter is NUL, not newline

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/head#hea-help'--helpX'tty: link'

display this help and exit

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/head#hea-version'--versionX'tty: link'

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.  

AUTHOR

Written by David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

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

SEE ALSO

tail(1)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/head>
or available locally via: info aq(coreutils) head invocationaq

Packaged by Gentoo (9.10 (p0))
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://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.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO