diff --git a/scm-webapp/src/main/java/sonia/scm/api/v2/resources/ContentResource.java b/scm-webapp/src/main/java/sonia/scm/api/v2/resources/ContentResource.java
index 014b9b90ef..4182fb9343 100644
--- a/scm-webapp/src/main/java/sonia/scm/api/v2/resources/ContentResource.java
+++ b/scm-webapp/src/main/java/sonia/scm/api/v2/resources/ContentResource.java
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import sonia.scm.repository.RepositoryException;
 import sonia.scm.repository.RepositoryNotFoundException;
 import sonia.scm.repository.api.RepositoryService;
 import sonia.scm.repository.api.RepositoryServiceFactory;
+import sonia.scm.util.IOUtil;
 
 import javax.inject.Inject;
 import javax.ws.rs.GET;
@@ -20,12 +21,14 @@ import javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException;
 import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
 import javax.ws.rs.core.Response.Status;
 import javax.ws.rs.core.StreamingOutput;
-import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.util.Arrays;
 
 public class ContentResource {
 
   private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ContentResource.class);
+  private static final int HEAD_BUFFER_SIZE = 1024;
 
   private final RepositoryServiceFactory serviceFactory;
 
@@ -98,8 +101,17 @@ public class ContentResource {
   }
 
   private byte[] getHead(String revision, String path, RepositoryService repositoryService) throws IOException, RepositoryException {
-    ByteArrayOutputStream outputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
-    repositoryService.getCatCommand().setRevision(revision).retriveContent(outputStream, path);
-    return outputStream.toByteArray();
+    InputStream stream = repositoryService.getCatCommand().setRevision(revision).getStream(path);
+    try {
+      byte[] buffer = new byte[HEAD_BUFFER_SIZE];
+      int length = stream.read(buffer);
+      if (length < buffer.length) {
+        return Arrays.copyOf(buffer, length);
+      } else {
+        return buffer;
+      }
+    } finally {
+      IOUtil.close(stream);
+    }
   }
 }
diff --git a/scm-webapp/src/test/java/sonia/scm/api/v2/resources/ContentResourceTest.java b/scm-webapp/src/test/java/sonia/scm/api/v2/resources/ContentResourceTest.java
index 3c926f7986..36f6c92c47 100644
--- a/scm-webapp/src/test/java/sonia/scm/api/v2/resources/ContentResourceTest.java
+++ b/scm-webapp/src/test/java/sonia/scm/api/v2/resources/ContentResourceTest.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import sonia.scm.repository.api.RepositoryServiceFactory;
 
 import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
 import javax.ws.rs.core.StreamingOutput;
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
@@ -55,7 +56,7 @@ public class ContentResourceTest {
 
     // defaults for unknown things
     doThrow(new RepositoryNotFoundException("x")).when(repositoryServiceFactory).create(not(eq(existingNamespaceAndName)));
-    doThrow(new PathNotFoundException("x")).when(catCommand).retriveContent(any(), any());
+    doThrow(new PathNotFoundException("x")).when(catCommand).getStream(any());
   }
 
   @Test
@@ -104,6 +105,17 @@ public class ContentResourceTest {
     assertEquals("text/plain", response.getHeaderString("Content-Type"));
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void shouldRecognizeShebangSourceCode() throws Exception {
+    mockContentFromResource("someScript.sh");
+
+    Response response = contentResource.get(NAMESPACE, REPO_NAME, REV, "someScript.sh");
+    assertEquals(200, response.getStatus());
+
+    assertEquals("PYTHON", response.getHeaderString("Language"));
+    assertEquals("application/x-sh", response.getHeaderString("Content-Type"));
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void shouldHandleRandomByteFile() throws Exception {
     mockContentFromResource("JustBytes");
@@ -127,6 +139,7 @@ public class ContentResourceTest {
       outputStream.close();
       return null;
     }).when(catCommand).retriveContent(any(), eq(path));
+    doAnswer(invocation -> new ByteArrayInputStream(content)).when(catCommand).getStream(eq(path));
   }
 
   private ByteArrayOutputStream readOutputStream(Response response) throws IOException {
diff --git a/scm-webapp/src/test/resources/someScript.sh b/scm-webapp/src/test/resources/someScript.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0bcecb189d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scm-webapp/src/test/resources/someScript.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+
+for f in * ; do
+	ls $f
+done
+