Added consistent non-empty version output for:

curl --version in packages/bare-os-coreutils/src/curl.js
wget --version in packages/bare-os-coreutils/src/wget.js
openssl version and openssl --version in packages/bare-os-coreutils/src/openssl.js
nano --version (via edit) in packages/bare-os-coreutils/src/edit.js
Updated tar compatibility in packages/bare-os-booter/lib/tar-cli.js:

Added tar --version
Added grouped short-flag parsing (-czf, etc.)
Added first-arg legacy cluster parsing (czf)
Added - archive target support for create/list/extract stream paths
Kept implementation as ustar subset (accepts z for compatibility parsing)
Fixed pipeline/timeout behavior:

Optimized head line mode to stop scanning early (no full split) in packages/bare-os-coreutils/src/head.js
Added bounded safety for yes cap in packages/bare-os-coreutils/src/yes.js
Hardened timeout so timed-out commands reliably produce exit code 124 in packages/bare-os-coreutils/src/timeout.js
Added scoped expr compatibility in shell:

Prevented pathname expansion of bare * only for expr arithmetic-token case in packages/bare-os-booter/lib/shell.js
Added glob option plumbing in packages/bare-os-booter/lib/shell-glob.js

kernel/bin/head

@@ -162,6 +162,19 @@ async function run(ctx, argv) {
 
   const files = argv.slice(i).filter((x) => x !== '--')
 
+  const takeFirstLines = (s, maxLines) => {
+    if (maxLines <= 0 || !s) return ''
+    let idx = 0
+    let seen = 0
+    while (seen < maxLines) {
+      const nl = s.indexOf('\n', idx)
+      if (nl === -1) return s
+      seen++
+      idx = nl + 1
+    }
+    return s.slice(0, idx)
+  }
+
   const takeString = (s) => {
     if (mode === 'bytes') {
       const u8 = ctx.b4a.from(s, 'utf8')
@@ -170,11 +183,8 @@ async function run(ctx, argv) {
       if (out) ctx.console.log(out)
       return
     }
-    const lines = s.split('\n')
-    const out = lines.slice(0, n).join('\n')
-    ctx.console.log(
-      out + (out && !out.endsWith('\n') && lines.length > n ? '\n' : '')
-    )
+    const out = takeFirstLines(s, n)
+    if (out) ctx.console.log(out)
   }
 
   const takeU8 = (u8) => {