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PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface
may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
head — copy the first part of files
SYNOPSIS
head [-n number] [file...]
DESCRIPTION
The head utility shall copy its input files to the standard output, ending the output for each file at a
designated point.
Copying shall end at the point in each input file indicated by the -n number option. The option-argument
number shall be counted in units of lines.
OPTIONS
The head utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 12.2, Utility
Syntax Guidelines.
The following option shall be supported:
-n number The first number lines of each input file shall be copied to standard output. The application
shall ensure that the number option-argument is a positive decimal integer.
When a file contains less than number lines, it shall be copied to standard output in its entirety. This
shall not be an error.
If no options are specified, head shall act as if -n 10 had been specified.
OPERANDS
The following operand shall be supported:
file A pathname of an input file. If no file operands are specified, the standard input shall be
used.
STDIN
The standard input shall be used if no file operands are specified, and shall be used if a file operand
is '-' and the implementation treats the '-' as meaning standard input. Otherwise, the standard input
shall not be used. See the INPUT FILES section.
INPUT FILES
Input files shall be text files, but the line length is not restricted to {LINE_MAX} bytes.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of head:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the
Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the
precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale
categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization
variables.
LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters
(for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic
messages written to standard error.
NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
The standard output shall contain designated portions of the input files.
If multiple file operands are specified, head shall precede the output for each with the header:
"\n==> %s <==\n", <pathname>
except that the first header written shall not include the initial <newline>.
STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
When using head to process pathnames, it is recommended that LC_ALL, or at least LC_CTYPE and LC_COLLATE,
are set to POSIX or C in the environment, since pathnames can contain byte sequences that do not form
valid characters in some locales, in which case the utility's behavior would be undefined. In the POSIX
locale each byte is a valid single-byte character, and therefore this problem is avoided.
EXAMPLES
To write the first ten lines of all files (except those with a leading period) in the directory:
head -- *
RATIONALE
Although it is possible to simulate head with sed 10q for a single file, the standard developers decided
that the popularity of head on historical BSD systems warranted its inclusion alongside tail.
POSIX.1‐2008 version of head follows the Utility Syntax Guidelines. The -n option was added to this new
interface so that head and tail would be more logically related. Earlier versions of this standard
allowed a -number option. This form is no longer specified by POSIX.1‐2008 but may be present in some
implementations.
There is no -c option (as there is in tail) because it is not historical practice and because other
utilities in this volume of POSIX.1‐2017 provide similar functionality.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
sed, tail
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility
Syntax Guidelines
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard
for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document.
The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced
during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2017 HEAD(1POSIX)