1.\" $OpenBSD: head.1,v 1.23 2015/10/25 21:50:32 zhuk Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. 4.\" All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 14.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 15.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 16.\" without specific prior written permission. 17.\" 18.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 19.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 20.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 21.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 22.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 23.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 24.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 25.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 26.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 27.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 28.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 29.\" 30.\" from: @(#)head.1 6.6 (Berkeley) 7/24/91 31.\" 32.Dd $Mdocdate: October 25 2015 $ 33.Dt HEAD 1 34.Os 35.Sh NAME 36.Nm head 37.Nd display first few lines of files 38.Sh SYNOPSIS 39.Nm head 40.Op Fl Ar count | Fl n Ar count 41.Op Ar 42.Sh DESCRIPTION 43The 44.Nm 45utility copies the first 46.Ar count 47lines of each specified 48.Ar file 49to the standard output. 50If no files are named, 51.Nm 52copies lines from the standard input. 53If 54.Ar count 55is omitted, it defaults to 10. 56.Pp 57The options are as follows: 58.Bl -tag -width Ds 59.It Fl Ar count | Fl n Ar count 60Copy the first 61.Ar count 62lines of each input file to the standard output. 63.Ar count 64must be a positive decimal integer. 65.El 66.Pp 67If more than one file is specified, 68.Nm 69precedes the output of each file with the following, in order 70to distinguish files: 71.Pp 72.Dl ==> Ar file No <== 73.Sh EXIT STATUS 74.Ex -std head 75.Sh EXAMPLES 76To display the first 500 lines of the file 77.Ar foo : 78.Pp 79.Dl $ head -n 500 foo 80.Pp 81.Nm 82can be used in conjunction with 83.Xr tail 1 84in the following way to, for example, display only line 500 from the file 85.Ar foo : 86.Pp 87.Dl $ head -n 500 foo | tail -1 88.Sh SEE ALSO 89.Xr cat 1 , 90.Xr cut 1 , 91.Xr less 1 , 92.Xr more 1 , 93.Xr tail 1 94.Sh STANDARDS 95The 96.Nm 97utility is compliant with the 98.St -p1003.1-2008 99specification. 100.Pp 101The historic syntax 102.Fl Ar count 103is supported by this implementation. 104.Sh HISTORY 105The 106.Nm 107utility first appeared in 108.Bx 1 . 109.Sh AUTHORS 110.An Bill Joy , 111August 24, 1977. 112