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HEAD(1) 		     General Commands Manual			 HEAD(1)

NAME
     head -- display first lines of a file

SYNOPSIS
     head [-qv] [-n count | -c bytes] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     This  filter  displays the first count lines or bytes of each of the speci-
     fied files, or of the standard input if no files are specified.   If  count
     is omitted it defaults to 10.

     The following options are available:

     -c bytes, --bytes=bytes
	     Print bytes of each of the specified files.

     -n count, --lines=count
	     Print count lines of each of the specified files.

	     Both  count and bytes may also be specified with size suffixes sup-
	     ported by expand_number(3).

     -q, --quiet, --silent
	     Suppresses printing of headers when multiple files are being  exam-
	     ined.

     -v, --verbose
	     Prepend each file with a header.

     If  more than a single file is specified, or if 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.

EXIT STATUS
     The head utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

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

	   $ head -n 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 -n 500 foo | tail -n 1

SEE ALSO
     tail(1), expand_number(3)

HISTORY
     The head command appeared in PWB UNIX.

FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly	  June 12, 2022 			 HEAD(1)

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