diff --git a/src/cowrie/commands/fs.py b/src/cowrie/commands/fs.py
index e7f341b5..e21c26f3 100644
--- a/src/cowrie/commands/fs.py
+++ b/src/cowrie/commands/fs.py
@@ -181,32 +181,34 @@ class Command_head(HoneyPotCommand):
     head command
     """
 
-    n: int = 10
+    linecount: int = 10
+    bytecount: int = 0
 
     def head_application(self, contents: bytes) -> None:
-        i = 0
-        contentsplit = contents.split(b"\n")
-        for line in contentsplit:
-            if i < self.n:
+        if self.bytecount:
+            self.writeBytes(contents[: self.bytecount])
+        elif self.linecount:
+            linesplit = contents.split(b"\n")
+            for line in linesplit[: self.linecount]:
                 self.writeBytes(line + b"\n")
-            i += 1
 
     def head_get_file_contents(self, filename: str) -> None:
         try:
             contents = self.fs.file_contents(filename)
             self.head_application(contents)
-        except Exception:
+        except fs.FileNotFound:
             self.errorWrite(
                 f"head: cannot open `{filename}' for reading: No such file or directory\n"
             )
 
     def start(self) -> None:
-        self.n = 10
+        self.lines: int = 10
+        self.bytecount: int = 0
         if not self.args or self.args[0] == ">":
             return
         else:
             try:
-                optlist, args = getopt.getopt(self.args, "n:")
+                optlist, args = getopt.getopt(self.args, "c:n:")
             except getopt.GetoptError as err:
                 self.errorWrite(f"head: invalid option -- '{err.opt}'\n")
                 self.exit()
@@ -215,9 +217,16 @@ class Command_head(HoneyPotCommand):
             for opt in optlist:
                 if opt[0] == "-n":
                     if not opt[1].isdigit():
-                        self.errorWrite(f"head: illegal offset -- {opt[1]}\n")
+                        self.errorWrite(f"head: invalid number of lines: `{opt[1]}`\n")
                     else:
-                        self.n = int(opt[1])
+                        self.linecount = int(opt[1])
+                        self.bytecount = 0
+                elif opt[0] == "-c":
+                    if not opt[1].isdigit():
+                        self.errorWrite(f"head: invalid number of bytes: `{opt[1]}`\n")
+                    else:
+                        self.bytecount = int(opt[1])
+                        self.linecount = 0
 
         if not self.input_data:
             files = self.check_arguments("head", args)
diff --git a/src/cowrie/output/remotesyslog.py b/src/cowrie/output/remotesyslog.py
index d1975c66..668cdb8d 100644
--- a/src/cowrie/output/remotesyslog.py
+++ b/src/cowrie/output/remotesyslog.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ class Output(cowrie.core.output.Output):
 
         self.logger = logging.getLogger("cowrieLogger")
 
-        self.handler = logging.handlers.SysLogHandler(address = (self.host, self.port), socktype= None if protocol == 'udp' else socket.SOCK_STREAM)
+        self.handler = logging.handlers.SysLogHandler(address = (self.host, self.port), socktype= None if protocol == "udp" else socket.SOCK_STREAM)
 
         self.logger.addHandler(
            self.handler
@@ -40,4 +40,4 @@ class Output(cowrie.core.output.Output):
             if i.startswith("log_") or i == "time" or i == "system":
                 del event[i]
 
-        self.logger.warning(repr(event)+'\n')
+        self.logger.warning(repr(event)+"\n")