The Linux head command reads and prints the first N lines to standard output. By default, it prints out the first 10 lines. However, this can be modified by passing additional arguments on the command-line. The ‘head’ command is the opposite of the ‘tail’ command that prints out the last N lines of a given file. In this guide, we focus on the Linux head command and feature a few use cases of the command.

Syntax:

The head command takes the following Syntax:

$ head [options] files(s)

1) Display the first 10 lines in a file

As discussed in the introduction, the head command – without any arguments – prints out the first 10 lines in a file. In the example below, we have a sample text file – asian_countries.txt – that contains a list of countries in the Asian continent.

To list the first 10 countries in the file, run the command:

$ head asian_countries.txt

Simple-Head-Command-output

2) Display the file name tag

Using the -v flag, you can display the filename tag before printing out the lines in the file as follows:

$ head -v asian_countries.txt

Head-Command-with-v-option

3) Display output from multiple files

Additionally, you can pass multiple files in a single command as shown below. This time, the name of each text file is printed first before the lines with the output of the first file preceding the next file.

In the example below, we have 2 text files: asian_countries.txt and europe_countries.txt. The output of the asian_countries.txt file is first printed out, followed by the europe_countries.txt file. Notice there’s a filename tag that comes before the lines.

$ head asian_countries.txt europe_countries.txt

Multiple-Files-Head-Command

4) Display the first N number of lines

You can define the lines you want to display using the -n flag followed by the number of lines you want to print. For example, to print the first 5 lines, run the command:

$ head -n 5 asian_countries.txt

Display-N-Number-Lines-Head-Command

5) Redirect output to a text file

Instead of printing to standard out, you can save the output of the head command to a text file using the redirection operator (>). If the file does not exist, it is created, and the output is stored. Take note that this overwrites everything in the file.

The command below saves the output of the first 4 lines in the asian_countries text file to the output.txt file

$ head -n 4 asian_countries.txt > output.txt

Redirect-Head-Command-to-file

To prevent the file from being overwritten, use the double greater than operator (>>) to append the output to the file.

In the command below, we are appending the output of the first 4 lines of the europe_countries text file to the output.txt file without overwriting it.

$ head -n 4 europe_countries.txt >> output.txt

Using the cat command, observe how the file contains the output of countries in Asia as well as those in Europe.

Append-Head-command-output

6) Use the head command with pipes

You can pipe commands to head to print N number of lines. For example, you can print the first 15 entries in the /etc directory as shown.

$ ls /etc | head -n 15

Head-Command-with-Pipe

You can also pipe the output of the head command to other commands such as the sort command for better formatting.

$ head -n 5 asian_countries.txt | sort > output2.txt

Sort-Head-Command-Output

7) Check the version of the head command

To check the version of the head command, invoke the command below.

$ head --version

Head-Command-Version

8) Get additional options

To get help with the command usage, visit the man pages as shown.

$ man head

Head-Command-Man-Page

Thanks for coming this far. We hope that this tutorial shed light and eliminated any confusion on the usage of the Linux head command.

Also Read : 9 tee Command Examples in Linux

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