Info Catalog coreutils: Output of parts of files coreutils: tail invocation

coreutils: head invocation

 
 5.1 ‘head’: Output the first part of files
 ==========================================
 
 ‘head’ prints the first part (10 lines by default) of each FILE; it
 reads from standard input if no files are given or when given a FILE of
 ‘-’.  Synopsis:
 
      head [OPTION]... [FILE]...
 
    If more than one FILE is specified, ‘head’ prints a one-line header
 consisting of:
 
      ==> FILE NAME <==
 
 before the output for each FILE.
 
    The program accepts the following options.  Also see ⇒Common
 options.
 
 ‘-c [-]NUM’
 ‘--bytes=[-]NUM’
      Print the first NUM bytes, instead of initial lines.  However, if
      NUM is prefixed with a ‘-’, print all but the last NUM bytes of
      each file.  NUM may be, or may be an integer optionally followed
      by, one of the following multiplicative suffixes:
           ‘b’  =>            512 ("blocks")
           ‘KB’ =>           1000 (KiloBytes)
           ‘K’  =>           1024 (KibiBytes)
           ‘MB’ =>      1000*1000 (MegaBytes)
           ‘M’  =>      1024*1024 (MebiBytes)
           ‘GB’ => 1000*1000*1000 (GigaBytes)
           ‘G’  => 1024*1024*1024 (GibiBytes)
      and so on for ‘T’, ‘P’, ‘E’, ‘Z’, and ‘Y’.  Binary prefixes can be
      used, too: ‘KiB’=‘K’, ‘MiB’=‘M’, and so on.
 
 ‘-n [-]NUM’
 ‘--lines=[-]NUM’
      Output the first NUM lines.  However, if NUM is prefixed with a
      ‘-’, print all but the last NUM lines of each file.  Size
      multiplier suffixes are the same as with the ‘-c’ option.
 
 ‘-q’
 ‘--quiet’
 ‘--silent’
      Never print file name headers.
 
 ‘-v’
 ‘--verbose’
      Always print file name headers.
 
 ‘-z’
 ‘--zero-terminated’
      Delimit items with a zero byte rather than a newline (ASCII LF).
      I.e., treat input as items separated by ASCII NUL and terminate
      output items with ASCII NUL. This option can be useful in
      conjunction with ‘perl -0’ or ‘find -print0’ and ‘xargs -0’ which
      do the same in order to reliably handle arbitrary file names (even
      those containing blanks or other special characters).
 
    For compatibility ‘head’ also supports an obsolete option syntax
 ‘-[NUM][bkm][cqv]’, which is recognized only if it is specified first.
 NUM is a decimal number optionally followed by a size letter (‘b’, ‘k’,
 ‘m’) as in ‘-c’, or ‘l’ to mean count by lines, or other option letters
 (‘cqv’).  Scripts intended for standard hosts should use ‘-c NUM’ or ‘-n
 NUM’ instead.  If your script must also run on hosts that support only
 the obsolete syntax, it is usually simpler to avoid ‘head’, e.g., by
 using ‘sed 5q’ instead of ‘head -5’.
 
    An exit status of zero indicates success, and a nonzero value
 indicates failure.
 

Info Catalog coreutils: Output of parts of files coreutils: tail invocation