The max_rows option controls the default value for the head() method of the DataFrame and the number of rows printed from a DataFrame. The default value is 10.
Example: Set the value to 5
>>> display.max_rows = 5
>>> DataFrame('iris')
SepalLength SepalWidth PetalLength PetalWidth Name
primary_index
0 5.1 3.5 1.4 0.2 Iris-setosa
40 5.0 3.5 1.3 0.3 Iris-setosa
80 5.5 2.4 3.8 1.1 Iris-versicolor
101 5.8 2.7 5.1 1.9 Iris-virginica
141 6.9 3.1 5.1 2.3 Iris-virginica