Understood, thanks for the explanation. quiet is not quite any more.. Does the following fix help ? --- a/diff.c +++ b/diff.c @@ -2826,6 +2826,8 @@ int diff_populate_filespec(struct diff_filespec *s, unsigned int flags) enum safe_crlf crlf_warn = (safe_crlf == SAFE_CRLF_FAIL ? SAFE_CRLF_WARN : safe_crlf); + if (size_only) + crlf_warn = SAFE_CRLF_FALSE;