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.TH head 1 "21 Jan 2012" "SunOS 5.11" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
head \- display first few lines of files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
\fB/usr/bin/head\fR [\fB-number\fR | \fB-n\fR \fInumber\fR] [\fIfilename\fR]...
.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
.LP
The \fBhead\fR utility copies the first \fInumber\fR of lines of each \fIfilename\fR to the standard output. If no \fIfilename\fR is given, \fBhead\fR copies lines from the standard input. The default value of \fInumber\fR is \fB10\fR lines.
.sp
.LP
When more than one file is specified, the start of each file looks like:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
\fB==>\fR \fIfilename\fR \fB<==\fR
.fi
.in -2

.sp
.LP
Thus, a common way to display a set of short files, identifying each one, is:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBhead -9999 filename1 filename2 ...\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.SH OPTIONS
.sp
.LP
The following options are supported:
.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB-n\fR \fInumber\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n
.rt  
The first \fInumber\fR lines of each input file is copied to standard output. The \fInumber\fR option-argument must be a positive decimal integer.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB-\fR\fInumber\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n
.rt  
The \fInumber\fR argument is a positive decimal integer with the same effect as the \fB-n\fR \fInumber\fR option.
.RE

.sp
.LP
If no options are specified, \fBhead\fR acts as if \fB-n\fR \fB10\fR had been specified.
.SH OPERANDS
.sp
.LP
The following operand is supported:
.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB\fIfilename\fR\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 12n
.rt  
A path name of an input file. If no \fIfile\fR operands are specified, the standard input is used.
.RE

.SH USAGE
.sp
.LP
See \fBlargefile\fR(5) for the description of the behavior of \fBhead\fR when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte (2^31 bytes).
.SH EXAMPLES
.LP
\fBExample 1 \fRWriting the First Ten Lines of All Files
.sp
.LP
The following example writes the first ten lines of all files, except those with a leading period, in the directory:

.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBhead *\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.sp
.LP
See \fBenviron\fR(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of \fBhead\fR: \fBLANG\fR, \fBLC_ALL\fR, \fBLC_CTYPE\fR, \fBLC_MESSAGES\fR, and \fBNLSPATH\fR.
.SH EXIT STATUS
.sp
.LP
The following exit values are returned:
.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB0\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
.rt  
Successful completion.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB>0\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
.rt  
An error occurred.
.RE

.SH ATTRIBUTES
.sp
.LP
See \fBattributes\fR(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
.sp

.sp
.TS
tab() box;
cw(2.75i) |cw(2.75i) 
lw(2.75i) |lw(2.75i) 
.
ATTRIBUTE TYPEATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
Availabilitysystem/core-os
_
CSIEnabled
_
Interface StabilityCommitted
_
StandardSee \fBstandards\fR(5).
.TE

.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
.LP
\fBcat\fR(1), \fBmore\fR(1), \fBpg\fR(1), \fBtail\fR(1), \fBattributes\fR(5), \fBenviron\fR(5), \fBlargefile\fR(5), \fBstandards\fR(5)