10 Best Examples of head command in Linux (RedHat/CentOS 7/8)

Table of Contents

SYNTAX

head [OPTION]... [FILE]...

10 Best Examples of head command in Linux (RedHat/CentOS 7/8) 1

head command in Linux

Also Read: 17 Useful nc command examples in Linux (RedHat/CentOS 7/8)

Example 1: Check head command version

To check the head command version you need to run head --version command as shown below. As you can see from the output, current head command version is 8.22.

[root@localhost ~]# head --version
head (GNU coreutils) 8.22
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering.

--version : output version information and exit

Example 2: Display First Line of a File

If you to display only first line of a file then you need to use below head command in Linux. As shown in below example here we are checking the contents of 1st Line of file1.txt file using head -1 file1.txt command.

[root@localhost ~]# head -1 file1.txt
This is cyberithub

Example 3: Display First 5 Lines of sshd_config using head command in Linux

If you want to display first 5 Lines of sshd_config file then you need to use head -n 5 /etc/ssh/sshd_config command as shown in the below example.

[root@localhost ~]# head -n 5 /etc/ssh/sshd_config
# $OpenBSD: sshd_config,v 1.100 2016/08/15 12:32:04 naddy Exp $

# This is the sshd server system-wide configuration file. See
# sshd_config(5) for more information.

-n : print the first K lines instead of the first 10

Example 4: Display First 10 bytes of sshd_config file using head command in Linux

If you want to check the first 10 bytes of sshd_config file then you need to use head -c 10 /etc/ssh/sshd_config command as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# head -c 10 /etc/ssh/sshd_config
# $OpenBSD

-c : print the first K bytes of each file

NOTE:

Please note that here I am using root user to run all the below commands.You can use any user with sudo access to run all these commands.For more information Please check Step by Step: How to Add User to Sudoers to provide sudo access to the User.

Example 5: Do not display headers

If you want to display the contents of multiple files without displaying the headers then you need to use -q option with head command in Linux as shown below. As you can see below here we have two files file1.txt and file2.txt who contents is mentioned below.

[root@localhost ~]# cat file1.txt
This is cyberithub
Hello World
[root@localhost ~]# cat file2.txt
This is from cyberithub
Hello from cyberithub

Now we will see the contents of both files file1.txt and file2.txt without showing the headers using head -q file1.txt file2.txt command as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# head -q file1.txt file2.txt
This is cyberithub
Hello World
This is from cyberithub
Hello from cyberithub

-q : never print headers giving file names

Example 6: Display first 5 lines of every .txt file using head command in Linux

If you want to display the first 5 lines of every .txt file in current directory then you need to use below head command.

[root@localhost ~]# head -n 5 *.txt
==> file1.txt <==
This is cyberithub
Hello World

==> file2.txt <==
This is from cyberithub
Hello from cyberithub

==> output.txt <==

Example 7: Display First 5 lines of every .txt file without showing headers

If you to display the contents of first 5 lines of every .txt file without showing their headers then you need to use below head command in Linux.

[root@localhost ~]# head -n 5 -q *.txt
This is cyberithub
Hello World
This is from cyberithub
Hello from cyberithub

Example 8: Always Print headers using head command in Linux

If you want to display the headers as well with the top 10 lines of files then you need to use -v option with head command in Linux. In this example, we are displaying the contents of file1.txt and file2.txt with its header information using -v option as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# head -v file1.txt file2.txt
==> file1.txt <==
This is cyberithub
Hello World

==> file2.txt <==
This is from cyberithub
Hello from cyberithub

-v : always print headers giving file names

Example 9: Display Last 5 Lines of sshd_config using head command in Linux

If you want to display last 5 lines of sshd_config then you can easily display it by using head command in combination with tail command in Linux as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/ssh/sshd_config | tail -5 | head
#Match User anoncvs
# X11Forwarding no
# AllowTcpForwarding no
# PermitTTY no
# ForceCommand cvs server

Example 10: Check all the head command Options

If you want to check all the options available with head command then you need to check it by running head --help command as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# head --help
Usage: head [OPTION]... [FILE]...
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.
-c, --bytes=[-]K print the first K bytes of each file;
with the leading '-', print all but the last
K bytes of each file
-n, --lines=[-]K print the first K lines instead of the first 10;
with the leading '-', print all but the last
K lines of each file
-q, --quiet, --silent never print headers giving file names
-v, --verbose always print headers giving file names
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information and exit

K may have a multiplier suffix:
b 512, kB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024,
GB 1000*1000*1000, G 1024*1024*1024, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y.

GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
For complete documentation, run: info coreutils 'head invocation'

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Cyberithub