Head And Tail

When working with large files, you often don't need to read the entire file — you just need to see the beginning or the end. The head and tail commands let you do exactly that.

The <strong>head</strong> command shows the first lines of a file. By default it shows the first 10 lines:

head log.txt

To specify how many lines to show, use the -n flag:

head -n 3 log.txt   # show first 3 lines
head -n 1 log.txt   # show only the first line

The <strong>tail</strong> command shows the last lines of a file. By default it shows the last 10 lines:

tail log.txt

To specify how many lines:

tail -n 3 log.txt   # show last 3 lines
tail -n 1 log.txt   # show only the last line

When to use each:

• Use head to preview the structure or header of a file
• Use tail to check the most recent entries in a log file

A useful trick — combining both:

You can use both commands together to see the start and end of a file at the same time:

head -n 2 log.txt
tail -n 2 log.txt