The head command does what you’d expect; it displays a file’s first group of lines (the file’s “head”). By default, it displays the first 10 lines of text:
$ head log_file line1 line2 line3 line4 Hello World - line5 line6 line7 line8 line9 Hello again World - line10 $
Similar to the tail command, the head command supports the -n parameter so that you can alter what’s displayed. Both commands also allow you to simply type a dash along with the number of lines to display, as shown here:
$ head -3 log_file line1 line2 line3 $
Usually the beginning of a file doesn’t change, so the head command doesn’t support the -f parameter feature as the tail command does. The head command is a handy way to just peek at the beginning of a file.
head Command Examples
1. To output first 10 lines from the file:
# head file.txt
2. To output first specified number of bytes from file:
# head -c 10 file.txt
3. To output first specified number of lines from file:
# head -n 15 file.txt
4. To never output headers giving file names:
# head -q file.txt # head --quiet file.txt # head --silent file.txt
5. To always print the headers giving file names:
# head -v file.txt # head --verbose file.txt
6. To display the help for head:
# head --help
7. To print the version info for head:
# head --version