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Head command in Linux

head is a command for Unix systems, including GNU/Linux, used to show the first lines or characters from given files, for each separately. By default, it displays the first ten lines, we can change it with the appropriate options. Cat , less , more are more commonly used to display the contents of files, but view is more useful for working with large numbers of lines. In the case of the head command, we limit ourselves to the first few files.

head command examples

Command syntax

head option file_name

How to display the first 10 lines of a file with the head command on Linux

 head file_name

Show the first N lines of a file in Linux

head -n 6 file_name

The -n option specifies how many rows to display in this case 6

Delete the last N lines of a file on Linux

head -n -5 file_name

Show the first N characters of the file

head -c 10 file_name

Delete the last N characters of the file

head -c -10 file_name

Show filename in header command head

head -n 5 -v file_name

When we are working on several files we will use the command

head -n 5 first_file second_file

Show filename in header command head

head -n 5 -1 first_file second_file