Linux Shell Scripting Cookbook - Third Edition

How to do it...

The head command reads the beginning of the input file.

1. Print the first 10 lines:

        $ head file

2. Read the data from stdin:

        $ cat text | head

3. Specify the number of first lines to be printed:

        $ head -n 4 file

This command prints the first four lines.

4. Print all lines excluding the last M lines:

        $ head -n -M file

Note that it is negative M.

 For example, to print all the lines except the last five lines, use the following command line:

        $ seq 11 | head -n -5
        1
        2
        3
        4
        5
        6

This command prints lines 1 to 5:

      $ seq 100 | head -n 5

5. Printing everything except the last lines is a common use for head. When examining log files we most often want to view the most recent (that is, the last) lines.
6. To print the last ...