head

Show the first lines of a file

What it does

head prints the start of a file, 10 lines by default. -n sets your own number: head -n 20 app.log; the short form head -20 works the same.

It is a quick look into a big file without opening all of it: the column names of a CSV, or the first entries of a log.

Syntax

head <file>
head -n <number> <file>

Examples

• Show the first 20 lines of app.log

  head -n 20 app.log

  same as: head -20 app.log, head -n20 app.log

  • head — start of the file
  • -n 20 — how many lines
  • app.log — file

Related commands

• tail — Show the last lines of a file, or follow it
• less — Read a big file page by page
• wc — Count lines, words and bytes

Practise · All commands