HEAD(1)                    OpenBSD Reference Manual                    HEAD(1)

NAME
     head - display first few lines of files



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

DESCRIPTION
     The head utility copies the first count lines of each specified file to
     the standard output.  If no files are named, head copies lines from the
     standard input.  If count is omitted, it defaults to 10.

     The options are as follows:

     -count | -n count
             Copy the first count lines of each input file to the standard
             output.  count must be a positive decimal integer.

     If more than one file is specified, head precedes the output of each file
     with the following, in order to distinguish the head of each file:

           ==> file <==

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

           $ head -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 -500 foo | tail -1

COMPATIBILITY
     The historic command line syntax of head is supported by this implementa-
     tion.

SEE ALSO
     cat(1),  less(1),  more(1),  tail(1)

STANDARDS
     The head utility conforms to IEEE Std1003.2-1992 (``POSIX.2'').

HISTORY
     The head utility appeared in 3.0BSD.

OpenBSD 2.6                      July 14, 1993                               1