void clear_commit_marks(struct commit *commit, unsigned int mark)
 {
-       struct commit_list *parents;
+       while (commit) {
+               struct commit_list *parents;
 
-       commit->object.flags &= ~mark;
-       parents = commit->parents;
-       while (parents) {
-               struct commit *parent = parents->item;
+               if (!(mark & commit->object.flags))
+                       return;
 
-               /* Have we already cleared this? */
-               if (mark & parent->object.flags)
-                       clear_commit_marks(parent, mark);
-               parents = parents->next;
+               commit->object.flags &= ~mark;
+
+               parents = commit->parents;
+               if (!parents)
+                       return;
+
+               while ((parents = parents->next))
+                       clear_commit_marks(parents->item, mark);
+
+               commit = commit->parents->item;
        }
 }
 
        encoding = get_header(commit, "encoding");
        use_encoding = encoding ? encoding : utf8;
        if (!strcmp(use_encoding, output_encoding))
-               out = xstrdup(commit->buffer);
+               if (encoding) /* we'll strip encoding header later */
+                       out = xstrdup(commit->buffer);
+               else
+                       return NULL; /* nothing to do */
        else
                out = reencode_string(commit->buffer,
                                      output_encoding, use_encoding);