NAME
head
- display first lines of a file
SYNOPSIS
head
[-qv]
[-n count]
[-c byte_count]
[file ...]
DESCRIPTION
This filter displays the first
count
lines of each of the specified files, or of the standard input if no
files are specified.
If
count
is omitted it defaults to 10.
If
-c byte_count
is specified,
head
counts bytes instead of lines.
If more than a single file is specified, or the
-v
option is used, each file is preceded by a header consisting of the string
``==> XXX =''
where
``XXX''
is the name of the file.
The
-q
flag disables the printing of the header in all cases.
The
head
utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
COMPATIBILITY
The historic command line syntax of
head
is supported by this implementation.
This command is mostly compatible with GNU extensions to
.
SEE ALSO
tail(1)
STANDARDS
The
head
utility conforms to
IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (``POSIX.2'') .
HISTORY
The
head
utility appeared in
3.0BSD.
It was enhanced to include the
-c,
-q,
and
-v
options for
NetBSD2.1.