Bash View Start of File
head prints the first lines of a file, which is the quickest way to peek at how a file begins without loading the whole thing.
Why Use head Instead of cat
Opening a huge log file or CSV with cat floods your terminal with thousands of lines. head solves this by printing only the beginning — 10 lines by default — so you can quickly check a file's format, header row, or first entries.
Default: first 10 lines
$ head access.log
192.168.1.5 - - [16/Jul/2026:09:00:01] "GET /"
192.168.1.5 - - [16/Jul/2026:09:00:02] "GET /style.css"
192.168.1.5 - - [16/Jul/2026:09:00:03] "GET /app.js"
... (7 more lines)Choosing How Many Lines with -n
The -n flag takes a number and tells head exactly how many lines to print instead of the default 10. You can also skip the letter and glue the number straight onto the flag, like -3, as a shorthand.
Show only the first 3 lines
$ head -n 3 access.log
192.168.1.5 - - [16/Jul/2026:09:00:01] "GET /"
192.168.1.5 - - [16/Jul/2026:09:00:02] "GET /style.css"
192.168.1.5 - - [16/Jul/2026:09:00:03] "GET /app.js"Checking Multiple Files at Once
Pass several filenames and head prints a ==> filename <== banner before each file's output, making it easy to compare how a batch of files begins in a single command.
Peek at two log files
$ head -n 2 jan.log feb.log
==> jan.log <==
Jan 1 00:00:01 boot sequence started
Jan 1 00:00:02 network interface up
==> feb.log <==
Feb 1 00:00:01 boot sequence started
Feb 1 00:00:02 network interface up- head file — print the first 10 lines
- head -n 20 file — print the first 20 lines
- head -c 200 file — print the first 200 bytes instead of lines
- head -n -5 file — print everything except the last 5 lines
- head -q file1 file2 — hide the filename banners
