CLEANUP_NONE,
        CLEANUP_ALL
 } cleanup_mode;
-static char *cleanup_arg;
+static const char *cleanup_arg;
 
 static enum commit_whence whence;
 static int use_editor = 1, include_status = 1;
                if (cleanup_mode == CLEANUP_ALL)
                        status_printf(s, GIT_COLOR_NORMAL,
                                _("Please enter the commit message for your changes."
-                               " Lines starting\nwith '#' will be ignored, and an empty"
-                               " message aborts the commit.\n"));
+                                 " Lines starting\nwith '%c' will be ignored, and an empty"
+                                 " message aborts the commit.\n"), comment_line_char);
                else /* CLEANUP_SPACE, that is. */
                        status_printf(s, GIT_COLOR_NORMAL,
                                _("Please enter the commit message for your changes."
-                               " Lines starting\n"
-                               "with '#' will be kept; you may remove them"
-                               " yourself if you want to.\n"
-                               "An empty message aborts the commit.\n"));
+                                 " Lines starting\n"
+                                 "with '%c' will be kept; you may remove them"
+                                 " yourself if you want to.\n"
+                                 "An empty message aborts the commit.\n"), comment_line_char);
                if (only_include_assumed)
                        status_printf_ln(s, GIT_COLOR_NORMAL,
                                        "%s", only_include_assumed);
 
 static const char *read_commit_message(const char *name)
 {
-       const char *out_enc, *out;
+       const char *out_enc;
        struct commit *commit;
 
        commit = lookup_commit_reference_by_name(name);
        if (!commit)
                die(_("could not lookup commit %s"), name);
        out_enc = get_commit_output_encoding();
-       out = logmsg_reencode(commit, out_enc);
-
-       /*
-        * If we failed to reencode the buffer, just copy it
-        * byte for byte so the user can try to fix it up.
-        * This also handles the case where input and output
-        * encodings are identical.
-        */
-       if (out == NULL)
-               out = xstrdup(commit->buffer);
-       return out;
+       return logmsg_reencode(commit, out_enc);
 }
 
 static int parse_and_validate_options(int argc, const char *argv[],
                include_status = git_config_bool(k, v);
                return 0;
        }
+       if (!strcmp(k, "commit.cleanup"))
+               return git_config_string(&cleanup_arg, k, v);
 
        status = git_gpg_config(k, v, NULL);
        if (status)
        return git_status_config(k, v, s);
 }
 
-static const char post_rewrite_hook[] = "hooks/post-rewrite";
-
 static int run_rewrite_hook(const unsigned char *oldsha1,
                            const unsigned char *newsha1)
 {
        int code;
        size_t n;
 
-       if (access(git_path(post_rewrite_hook), X_OK) < 0)
+       argv[0] = find_hook("post-rewrite");
+       if (!argv[0])
                return 0;
 
-       argv[0] = git_path(post_rewrite_hook);
        argv[1] = "amend";
        argv[2] = NULL;