HEAD(1)
NAME
head - output the first part of files
SYNOPSIS
head [-c N[bkm]] [-n N] [-qv] [--bytes=N[bkm]] [--lines=N]
[--quiet] [--silent] [--verbose] [--help] [--version]
[file...]
head [-Nbcklmqv] [file...]
DESCRIPTION
This documentation is no longer being maintained and may
be inaccurate or incomplete. The Texinfo documentation is
now the authoritative source.
This manual page documents the GNU version of head. head
prints the first part (10 lines by default) of each given
file; it reads from standard input if no files are given
or when a filename of `-' is encountered. If more than
one file is given, it prints a header consisting of the
file's name enclosed in `==>' and `<==' before the output
for each file.
OPTIONS
head accepts two option formats: the new one, in which
numbers are arguments to the option letters, and the old
one, in which the number precedes any option letters.
-c N, --bytes N
Print first N bytes. N is a nonzero integer,
optionally followed by one of the following charac-
ters to specify a different unit.
b 512-byte blocks.
k 1-kilobyte blocks.
m 1-megabyte blocks.
-n N, --lines N
Print first N lines.
-q, --quiet, --silent
Never print filename headers.
-v, --verbose
Always print filename headers.
--help Print a usage message and exit with a status code
indicating success.
--version
Print version information on standard output then
exit.