View the Beginning of Text Files with head

The head command is a core Linux utility used to view the very beginning of a text file. Despite its narrow functionality, head is useful in many systems administration and scripting tasks. For similar functionality that address the end of a file, use the tail utility instead.

Using head

List the file or files you want to view after the head command:

head /etc/rc.conf

This will print the first 10 lines of /etc/rc.conf to standard output. If a file has fewer than 10 lines, head will print the entire file.

Control the Length of Output

With the -n option, the number of lines that head outputs can be modified:

head -n 24 /etc/logrotate.conf

This prints the first 24 lines of /etc/logrotate.conf to the terminal. You can specify the number of lines before or after you declare the file:

head /etc/logrotate.conf -n 24

If a file is smaller than the specified number of lines, head will print the entire file.

View Multiple Files

head can process multiple files at once:

head example.txt names.txt

==> example.txt <==
lollipop
The Joke
Jockey to the Fair
Simon's Fancy
Truckles

==> names.txt <==
John
Susan
Michael
Robert
Justin

Herbert
Marissa
George
Jacob

To view the first line of every file in a directory, you can use the -n option combined with the * wild card:

head -n 1 *

View Command Output

By using the pipe operator, head can be used to filter the output of commands as well as files:

cat --help | head -n 2

Usage: cat [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Concatenate FILE(s), or standard input, to standard output.

ls /usr/lib | head

alsa-lib
ao
apr.exp
apr-util-1
aprutil.exp
aspell
aspell-0.60
avahi
awk
bmp