HEAD(1) General Commands Manual HEAD(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

head - Print the first 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. With more than one FILE, precede each with a header giving the file name. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**head** \[OPTION]... \[FILE]...

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Print the first 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. With more than one FILE, precede each with a header giving the file name. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**-c**, **--bytes** *<\[-\]NUM>*](#c)

print the first NUM bytes of each file; with a leading '-', print all but the last NUM bytes of each file

[**-n**, **--lines** *<\[-\]NUM>*](#n)

print the first NUM lines instead of the first 10; with a leading '-', print all but the last NUM lines of each file

[**-q**, **--quiet**](#q)

never print headers giving file names

[**-v**, **--verbose**](#v)

always print headers giving file names

[**-z**, **--zero-terminated**](#z)

line delimiter is NUL, not newline

[**-h**, **--help**](#h)

Print help

[**-V**, **--version**](#V)

Print version

\[*FILE*] \[default: -]

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

2026-10-08

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Document: head(1) from uutils 0.12.0-r2 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils