head usage example
Usage
Here’s how to use head
:
-
Enter the
head
command followed by the file name you want to view:head /var/log/auth.log
This will print the first ten lines of the
/var/log/auth.log
file to your terminal output. -
To change the number of lines displayed, use the
n
option:head -n 50 /var/log/auth.log
In this example, the first 50 lines will be shown, but you can modify this number to show as few or as many lines as you need.
-
To show the beginning of a file up to a specific number of bytes, you may use the
c
option:head -c 1000 /var/log/auth.log
This will print the first 1000 bytes of the file to your screen. It can be useful in situations where a file must be broken into pieces of a fixed size (e.g., for uploading to a separate server).
-
The
head
command can even be combined with other tools likegrep
to filter the results:head /var/log/auth.log | grep 198.51.100.1
This command searches the first ten lines of your access log and only displays those containing the IP address
198.51.100.1
. You can also apply options tohead
for an even more specific output.
https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/how-to-use-head/