HEAD(1)                     General Commands Manual                    HEAD(1)

NAME
     head – display first lines of a file

SYNOPSIS
     head [-n count | -c bytes] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     This filter displays the first count lines or bytes of each of the
     specified files, or of the standard input if no files are specified.  If
     count is omitted it defaults to 10.

     The following options are available:

     -c bytes, --bytes=bytes
             Print bytes of each of the specified files.

     -n count, --lines=count
             Print count lines of each of the specified files.

     If more than a single file is specified, each file is preceded by a
     header consisting of the string “==> XXX <==” where “XXX” is the name of
     the file.

EXIT STATUS
     The head utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES
     To display the first 500 lines of the file foo:

           $ head -n 500 foo

     head can be used in conjunction with tail(1) in the following way to, for
     example, display only line 500 from the file foo:

           $ head -n 500 foo | tail -n 1

SEE ALSO
     tail(1)

HISTORY
     The head command appeared in PWB UNIX.

macOS 15.2                      April 10, 2018                      macOS 15.2