1.\" $OpenBSD: head.1,v 1.17 2010/09/03 11:09:29 jmc 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: September 3 2010 $ 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.Oo 41.Fl Ns Ar count No \&| 42.Fl n Ar count 43.Oc 44.Op Ar 45.Sh DESCRIPTION 46The 47.Nm 48utility copies the first 49.Ar count 50lines of each specified 51.Ar file 52to the standard output. 53If no files are named, 54.Nm 55copies lines from the standard input. 56If 57.Ar count 58is omitted, it defaults to 10. 59.Pp 60The options are as follows: 61.Bl -tag -width Ds 62.It Xo Fl Ns Ar count No \&| 63.Fl n Ar count 64.Xc 65Copy the first 66.Ar count 67lines of each input file to the standard output. 68.Ar count 69must be a positive decimal integer. 70.El 71.Pp 72If more than one file is specified, 73.Nm 74precedes the output of each file with the following, in order to distinguish 75the head of each file: 76.Pp 77.Dl ==> Ar file No <== 78.Sh EXIT STATUS 79.Ex -std head 80.Sh EXAMPLES 81To display the first 500 lines of the file 82.Ar foo : 83.Pp 84.Dl $ head -500 foo 85.Pp 86.Nm 87can be used in conjunction with 88.Xr tail 1 89in the following way to, for example, display only line 500 from the file 90.Ar foo : 91.Pp 92.Dl $ head -500 foo | tail -1 93.Sh SEE ALSO 94.Xr cat 1 , 95.Xr less 1 , 96.Xr more 1 , 97.Xr tail 1 98.Sh STANDARDS 99The 100.Nm 101utility is compliant with the 102.St -p1003.1-2008 103specification. 104.Pp 105The historic command line syntax is supported by this implementation. 106.Sh HISTORY 107The 108.Nm 109utility appeared in 110.Bx 3.0 . 111