head(1) User Commands head(1)
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.
-c, --bytes=[-]NUM
print the first NUM bytes of each file; with the leading '-',
print all but the last NUM bytes of each file
-n, --lines=[-]NUM
print the first NUM lines instead of the first 10; with the
leading '-', print all but the last NUM lines of each file
-q, --quiet, --silent
never print headers giving file names
-v, --verbose
always print headers giving file names
-z, --zero-terminated
line delimiter is NUL, not newline
--help display this help and exit
--version
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
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/>
COPYRIGHT
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.
SEE ALSO
tail(1)
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/head>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) head invocation'
GNU coreutils 9.10 March 2026 head(1)
coreutils 9.10 - Generated Thu Apr 2 13:45:57 CDT 2026