head

The head command in Linux is a versatile tool used to display the beginning of a file. By default, it shows the first six lines, making it ideal for quickly previewing large files without reading through their entirety.

Examples:

head filename

Displays the first ten lines of filename.

head -n 16 file.txt

Displays the first 16 lines of file.txt.

head < log.txt

Redirect a file to head.

The head command is an essential utility for initial data inspection and is simple yet powerful, making it indispensable in shell scripting and command-line usage.