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