head and tail

Simple, extensible file previewers.

Examples

Beginning of a File - head

• head big.txt - first 10 lines
• head -n 3 big.txt - first 3 lines
• head -n -5 big.txt - up to the 5th-to-last line (exclusive)

End of a File - tail

• tail big.txt - last 10 lines
• tail -n 3 big.txt last 3 lines
• tail -n +5 big.txt starting at the 5th line (inclusive)

Following Output

tail also comes with follow output feature. This can be useful when watching logging/output files written to in real-time by other programs.

• tail -f output.txt last 10 lines and print new lines when they are written
• tail -n +0 -f output.txt all lines and print new lines when they are written

See Also

• man head
• man tail