head — Show the First Lines of Files

head shows you the beginning of a file – by default the first 10 lines. With it you take a quick look inside large files, check the header row of a CSV or limit output in pipelines to the first hits. Use -n to set the line count and -c to work byte by byte. Handy: GNU head also understands negative counts such as -n -3 (everything but the last three lines). This guide walks you through the common options and their typical pipeline partners.

Basic Usage

head <file> — Show the first 10 lines of a file (default).

head access.log

head -n <count> <file> — Show the first N lines of a file.

head -n 20 access.log

head -<count> <file> — Shorthand for -n. Show the first N lines.

head -5 data.csv

head -n -<count> <file> — Show all lines except the last N lines.

head -n -3 data.txt

Byte Mode

head -c <bytes> <file> — Show the first N bytes of a file instead of lines.

head -c 100 binary.dat

head -c <size>K <file> — Show the first N kilobytes. Supports K, M, G suffixes.

head -c 4K large-file.bin

head -c -<bytes> <file> — Show all bytes except the last N bytes.

head -c -10 data.bin

Multiple Files

head <file1> <file2> — Show the first 10 lines of each file with filename headers.

head error.log access.log

head -n <count> <file1> <file2> — Show the first N lines of multiple files.

head -n 5 *.log

head -q <file1> <file2> — Quiet mode. Suppress filename headers when showing multiple files.

head -q -n 1 *.csv

head -v <file> — Verbose mode. Always show filename header, even for a single file.

head -v -n 5 data.txt

Pipelines

<command> | head — Show only the first 10 lines of command output.

ps aux | head

<command> | head -n <count> — Limit command output to the first N lines.

find / -name '*.conf' 2>/dev/null | head -n 20

<command> | head -n 1 — Get only the first line of output (e.g. header row or first result).

docker ps | head -n 1

sort <file> | head -n <count> — Show the first N items after sorting (e.g. smallest values).

sort -n scores.txt | head -n 5

<command> | head -c <bytes> — Limit output to a specific byte count from a pipeline.

cat /dev/urandom | head -c 32 | base64

Common Patterns

head -n 1 <file> — Show only the header line of a CSV or TSV file.

head -n 1 data.csv

head -n 1 <file> && tail -n +2 <file> | sort — Print header line, then sort the remaining data lines.

head -n 1 data.csv && tail -n +2 data.csv | sort -t',' -k2

head -c 4 <file> | xxd — Check the magic bytes (file signature) of a binary file.

head -c 4 image.png | xxd

for f in *.log; do echo "=== $f ==="; head -n 3 "$f"; done — Preview the first 3 lines of each log file with custom headers.

for f in *.log; do echo "=== $f ==="; head -n 3 "$f"; done

Conclusion

head is the natural counterpart to tail and one of the fastest ways to look at a file without loading it whole – ideal for huge files too, since head simply stops reading once it has enough lines. Note that the negative counts (head -n -3, head -c -10) are a GNU extension and do not work on BSD or macOS. To cut out a middle range of lines, combine head with tail, for example head -n 20 | tail -n 5. With -c head reads binary data too – but take care mixing -n and -c, as the two are mutually exclusive.