Hi I have noticed an erratic behavior of git commit --allow-empty: sometimes it creates a new commit, but sometimes not. I have executed two times the following script, emptycommit: #!/bin/bash set -x rm -rf local mkdir local cd local git init echo "aaa" >f1 git add f1 git commit -m A git checkout --orphan feature git commit -m A --allow-empty git rev-list --all --pretty=oneline This is the log of the first execution: $ emptycommit + rm -rf local + mkdir local + cd local + git init Initialized empty Git repository in d:/gtest/local/.git/ + echo aaa + git add f1 warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF in f1. The file will have its original line endings in your working directory. + git commit -m A [master (root-commit) 07e7d37] A warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF in f1. The file will have its original line endings in your working directory. 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) create mode 100644 f1 + git checkout --orphan feature Switched to a new branch 'feature' + git commit -m A --allow-empty [feature (root-commit) 2297c4e] A warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF in f1. The file will have its original line endings in your working directory. 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) create mode 100644 f1 + git rev-list --all --pretty=oneline 2297c4e34ec27f3cdeca8c0dcdcd61b4a079f411 A 07e7d379c2339ed375ed4903f6196d627367b7bf A >>>>> note that git commit -m A --allow-empty creates a commit This is the log of the second execution: $ emptycommit + rm -rf local + mkdir local + cd local + git init Initialized empty Git repository in d:/gtest/local/.git/ + echo aaa + git add f1 warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF in f1. The file will have its original line endings in your working directory. + git commit -m A [master (root-commit) 1b86218] A warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF in f1. The file will have its original line endings in your working directory. 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) create mode 100644 f1 + git checkout --orphan feature Switched to a new branch 'feature' + git commit -m A --allow-empty [feature (root-commit) 1b86218] A warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF in f1. The file will have its original line endings in your working directory. 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) create mode 100644 f1 + git rev-list --all --pretty=oneline 1b8621851f6ae2943347da655661e9d5dc978208 A >>>>> note that git commit -m A --allow-empty DOES NOT create a commit The script has been run on Windows 7 with git version 1.7.11.msysgit.1 -Angelo -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html