Heads/ Tails

Head and tail  are two simple commands.

 the first one head gives the first ten lines of a file for instance:

head /etc/passwd
outputs:
root
bin
deamon
adm
lp
sync
shutdown
halt
mail

the secon
root
bin
deamon
adm
lp
d one: tail gives the last ten words of a file to use a similar example:

tail /etc/passwd
outputs:
avahi
tcpdump
jelkner
student
systemd-bus-proxy
systemd-network
geoclue
setroubleshoot
jjohnson
hrodriguez





now people dont always want just the first or last ten words in a line. sometimes they want the first/last four or first/last twenty seven. to do this we use the:

-N parameter 

the -n parameter tells the computer how many lines you want it to output for instance:

head -n 5 /etc/passwd

gives you:
root
bin
deamon
adm
lp

or
tails -n 15 /ect/passwd

gives you:
pulse
gdm
gnome-initial-setup
postfix
sshd
avahi
tcpdump
jelkner
student
systemd-bus-proxy
systemd-network
geoclue
setroubleshoot
jjohnson
hrodriguez