From 520a7c7db1364eb92e6e613f690eb0ceda668c9e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jared Kobos <jaredkobos@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2018 11:28:18 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] [UPDATE] View the Beginning of Text Files with head

---
 ...w-the-beginning-of-text-files-with-head.md | 55 ++++++++++---------
 1 file changed, 28 insertions(+), 27 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/tools-reference/tools/view-the-beginning-of-text-files-with-head.md b/docs/tools-reference/tools/view-the-beginning-of-text-files-with-head.md
index 2d51ed5d3ae..7c4dae8bc1c 100644
--- a/docs/tools-reference/tools/view-the-beginning-of-text-files-with-head.md
+++ b/docs/tools-reference/tools/view-the-beginning-of-text-files-with-head.md
@@ -2,60 +2,57 @@
 author:
   name: Linode
   email: docs@linode.com
-description: Use the Linux command head to view the beginning of a text file
-keywords: ["head", "linux", "common commands", "cli"]
+description: 'Use the Linux command head to view the beginning of a text file'
+og_description: 'Head is a Unix command line utility for viewing the beginning of text files. This guide shows how to use head and gives practical examples.'
+keywords: ["head", "linux", "utilities", "cli", "text files"]
 license: '[CC BY-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0)'
 aliases: ['linux-tools/common-commands/head/']
-modified: 2011-04-19
+modified: 2018-02-02
 modified_by:
   name: Linode
 published: 2010-10-25
 title: View the Beginning of Text Files with head
 ---
 
-The `head` command is a core Linux utility used to view the very beginning of a text file. Despite its narrow functionality, `head` is useful in many systems administration and scripting tasks. For similar functionality that address the end of a file, consider the tail utility.
+The `head` command is a core Linux utility used to view the very beginning of a text file. Despite its narrow functionality, `head` is useful in many systems administration and scripting tasks. For similar functionality that address the end of a file, use the [tail](/docs/tools-reference/tools/view-and-follow-the-end-of-text-files-with-tail/) utility instead.
 
-![Title graphic](/docs/assets/view_the_beginning_of_text_files_with_head_smg.png)
+![View Beginning of Files with Head](/docs/assets/view_the_beginning_of_text_files_with_head_smg.png)
 
 ## Using head
 
-Consider the following invocation:
+List the file or files you want to view after the `head` command:
 
     head /etc/rc.conf
 
-This will print the first 10 lines of the `/etc/rc.conf` file to standard output on the terminal. Thus, `head` is useful for a number of different situations such as determining the contents of a file if the file names are ambiguous.
+This will print the first 10 lines of `/etc/rc.conf` to standard output. If a file has fewer than 10 lines, `head` will print the entire file.
 
-If a file has fewer than 10 lines, `head` will print the entire file.
+### Control the Length of Output
 
-### Control the Length of Output with head
-
-With the `-n` option, the number of lines that `head` outputs can be modified. For example:
+With the `-n` option, the number of lines that `head` outputs can be modified:
 
     head -n 24 /etc/logrotate.conf
 
-This prints the first 24 lines of the `/etc/logrotate.conf` file to the terminal. You can specify the number of lines before or after you declare the file. Therefore, the following command is equivalent to the previous command:
+This prints the first 24 lines of `/etc/logrotate.conf` to the terminal. You can specify the number of lines before or after you declare the file:
 
     head /etc/logrotate.conf -n 24
 
 If a file is smaller than the specified number of lines, `head` will print the entire file.
 
-### View the Beginning of Multiple Files with head
+### View Multiple Files
 
-`head` can process multiple files at once. Consider the following:
+`head` can process multiple files at once:
 
-{{< output >}}
-$ ls
-example  roster
+    head example.txt names.txt
 
-$ head *
-==> example <==
+{{< output >}}
+==> example.txt <==
 lollipop
 The Joke
 Jockey to the Fair
 Simon's Fancy
 Truckles
 
-==> roster <==
+==> names.txt <==
 John
 Susan
 Michael
@@ -68,18 +65,24 @@ George
 Jacob
 {{< /output >}}
 
-`head` outputs the first ten lines of each file by default. If you are using `head` to read more than one file, you may also use the `-n` option to control the number of lines printed.
+To view the first line of every file in a directory, you can use the `-n` option combined with the `*` wild card:
+
+    head -n 1 *
+
+### View Command Output
 
-### Combine head with Other Commands
+By using the pipe operator, `head` can be used to filter the output of commands as well as files:
 
-`head` can be used to filter the output of commands as well as files. For instance:
+    cat --help | head -n 2
 
 {{< output >}}
-% cat --help | head -n 2
 Usage: cat [OPTION]... [FILE]...
 Concatenate FILE(s), or standard input, to standard output.
+{{< /output >}}
+
+    ls /usr/lib | head
 
-$ ls /usr/lib | head
+{{< output >}}
 alsa-lib
 ao
 apr.exp
@@ -91,5 +94,3 @@ avahi
 awk
 bmp
 {{< /output >}}
-
-In the first example, `head` filters the full output of `cat --help` to generate only the first two lines of the output of the command. In the second example, `head` prints the first ten lines of the output of the `ls` command.