Help: HEAD

HEAD

Not in LE

Purpose:

Display the beginning of the specified file(s).

Format:

HEAD [/A:[[-][+]rhsadecijopt] /Cn /I"text" /Nn /P /Q /V] [@file] file...

file	The file or list of files that you want to display.

@file

A text file containing the names of the files to display, one per line (see @file lists for details).

/A: (Attribute select)	/P(ause)
/C (number of bytes)	/Q(uiet)
/I"text" (match description)	/V(erbose)
/N(umber of lines)

See also: LIST, TAIL, and TYPE.

File Selection

Supports attribute switches, extended wildcards, ranges, multiple file names, and include lists.

Internet: Can be used with FTP/HTTP Servers, e.g.

head "http://jpsoft.com/notfound.htm"

Usage:

The HEAD command displays the first part of a file or files. It is normally only useful for displaying ASCII text files (i.e. alphanumeric characters arranged in lines separated by CR/LF). Executable files (.COM and .EXE) and many data files may be unreadable when displayed with HEAD because they include non-alphanumeric characters or unusual line separators.

You can press Ctrl-S to pause HEAD's display and then any key to continue.

The following example displays the first 15 lines of the files MEMO1 and MEMO2:

head /n15 memo1 memo2

To display text from the clipboard use CLIP: as the file name. CLIP: will not return any data if the clipboard does not contain text. See Highlighting and Copying Text for additional information on CLIP:.

FTP Usage

HEAD can also display files on FTP/HTTP Servers. For example:

head ftp://jpsoft.com/index

NTFS File Streams

HEAD supports file streams on NTFS drives. You can type an individual stream by specifying the stream name, for example:

head streamfile:s1

Options:

/A:	Select only those files that have the specified attribute(s) set. See Attribute Switches for information on the attributes which can follow /A:. Do not use /A: with @file lists. See @file lists for details.

/C:	Display the specified number of bytes. /C accepts a b, k, or m modifiers at the end of the number. b is the number of 512-byte blocks, k is the number of kilobytes, and m the number of megabytes.

/I"text"

Select files by matching text in their descriptions. The text can include wildcards and extended wildcards. The search text must be enclosed in double quotes, and must follow the /I immediately, with no intervening spaces. You can select all filenames that have a description with /I"[?]*", or all filenames that do not have a description with /I"[]". Do not use /I with @file lists. See @file lists for details.

/N n	Display n lines. The default is 10.

/P	Pause and prompt after displaying each page.

/Q	Do not display a header for each file. This is the default behavior, but an explicit /Q may be needed to override an alias that forces /V.

/V	Display a header for each file.