How does head and tail commands differ between distributions?

The head and tail commands in Linux are used to display the beginning and end of files, respectively. While their core functionalities are generally consistent across different distributions (such as Ubuntu, CentOS, and Fedora), slight variations exist in their options and default behaviors based on system implementations. This can result in differences in output formatting, supported options, or available features.

Example Usage

Here are the basic usages of the head and tail commands:

# Display the first 10 lines of a file
head filename.txt

# Display the last 10 lines of a file
tail filename.txt