head and tail

Lesson in the Shell / Bash Roadmap · Stage 11: Text Editors

Last updated 14 September 2026

What is head and tail?

head and tail are command-line utilities used to display the beginning or end of a file, respectively. head shows the first few lines of a file, while tail shows the last few lines. They are useful for quickly inspecting log files, configuration files, or any text-based data without opening the entire file in a text editor.

Study this in the interactive course See the whole Shell / Bash roadmap

Free resources to learn head and tail

head and tail: common questions

Can I learn head and tail in Hindi?

This lesson is written in English. Once you sign in, open it in the interactive course and ask the AI tutor to explain head and tail in Hindi or Hinglish. The tutor answers from this lesson’s own text, so it stays on the syllabus, and it runs on your own Google, OpenAI or Anthropic key.

Is this head and tail tutorial for beginners?

It is lesson 45 of 166 in the free Shell / Bash roadmap, in stage 11, Text Editors. If you are new to Shell / Bash, start from stage 1 and come back here in order; if you already know the earlier stages, this lesson stands on its own.