.\" $OpenBSD: head.1,v 1.9 2000/10/07 14:42:28 aaron Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" from: @(#)head.1 6.6 (Berkeley) 7/24/91 .\" .Dd July 14, 1993 .Dt HEAD 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm head .Nd display first few lines of files .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm head .Oo .Fl Ns Ar count No \&| .Fl n Ar count .Oc .Op Ar .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm utility copies the first .Ar count lines of each specified .Ar file to the standard output. If no files are named, .Nm copies lines from the standard input. If .Ar count is omitted, it defaults to 10. .Pp The options are as follows: .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Xo Fl Ns Ar count No \&| .Fl n Ar count .Xc Copy the first .Ar count lines of each input file to the standard output. .Ar count must be a positive decimal integer. .El .Pp If more than one file is specified, .Nm precedes the output of each file with the following, in order to distinguish the head of each file: .Pp .Dl ==> Ar file No <== .Sh COMPATIBILITY The historic command line syntax is supported by this implementation. .Sh EXAMPLES To display the first 500 lines of the file .Ar foo : .Pp .Dl $ head -500 foo .Pp .Nm can be used in conjunction with .Xr tail 1 in the following way to, for example, display only line 500 from the file .Ar foo : .Pp .Dl $ head -500 foo | tail -1 .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr cat 1 , .Xr less 1 , .Xr more 1 , .Xr tail 1 .Sh STANDARDS The .Nm utility conforms to .St -p1003.2-92 . .Sh HISTORY The .Nm utility appeared in .Bx 3.0 .