# head

## Introduction

The head command is used to output the first part of files.

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## Syntax

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

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## Important Flags

| Flag     | Description                                                     |
| -------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `-n num` | Prints the first ‘num’ lines instead of the first 10 lines.     |
| `-c num` | Prints the first ‘num’ bytes from the file specified.           |
| `-q`     | Suppresses printing filenames when more than one file is given. |
| `-v`     | Prints data from the specified file preceded by its filename.   |

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## Examples

<table><thead><tr><th>Command</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">head -n 20 file.txt | tail -10
</code></pre></td><td>To print lines between 10 and 20 in file.txt.</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">ls -t | head -n 3
</code></pre></td><td>Pipe the output of ls command to head to show only the three most recently modified files or folders.</td></tr><tr><td><pre class="language-bash" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-bash">ls -t | head -n 3 | sort
</code></pre></td><td>Pipe the output of ls command to head and sort to display the three most recently used files or folders in alphabetical order.</td></tr></tbody></table>