Linux and Unix head command tutorial with examples
Tutorial on using head, a UNIX and Linux command for outputting the first part of files. Examples of outputting the first ten lines of a file, limiting the number of lines, limiting the number of bytes, showing multiple files and using pipes.
What is the head command? ¶
The head command is a command-line utility for outputting the first part of
files given to it via standard input. It writes results to standard output. By
default head returns the first ten lines of each file that it is given.
How to view the first ten lines of a file ¶
To view the first ten lines of a file pass the name of a file to the head
command. The first ten lines of the file will be printed to standard output.
head /usr/share/dict/words
A
a
AA
AAA
Aachen
aah
Aaliyah
Aaliyah's
aardvark
aardvark's
How to limit the number of lines to show ¶
To set the number of lines to show with head pass the -n option followed by
the number of lines to show.
head -n 1 /usr/share/dict/words
A
How to limit the number of bytes to show ¶
To limit the number of bytes shown with head pass the -c option. Instead of
limiting by number of lines this will limit by the number of bytes passed to the
-c option. In the following example the output is limited to 16 bytes.
head -c 16 /usr/share/dict/words
A
a
AA
AAA
Aache%
How to show multiple files ¶
To show the first ten lines of multiple files pass more than one filename to the
head command. This will output the first ten lines of each file to standard
output with a header indicating which file is being shown.
head /usr/share/dict/words /usr/share/dict/french
==> /usr/share/dict/words <==
A
a
AA
AAA
Aachen
aah
Aaliyah
Aaliyah's
aardvark
aardvark's
==> /usr/share/dict/french <==
ça
AAAI
abaissé
abaissa
abaissai
abaissaient
abaissais
abaissait
abaissant
abaissas
To suppress the header line pass the -q option. This can be useful to combine
files.
head -q /usr/share/dict/words /usr/share/dict/french
A
a
AA
AAA
Aachen
aah
Aaliyah
Aaliyah's
aardvark
aardvark's
ça
AAAI
abaissé
abaissa
abaissai
abaissaient
abaissais
abaissait
abaissant
abaissas
How to use head with pipes ¶
The head command can be piped to from other commands. In the following example
the output of the ls command is piped to head to only show the five most
recently modified files or folders.
ls -t /etc | head -n 5
ld.so.cache
ssh
pam.d
shadow
passwd
Further reading ¶
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