fd = hold_locked_index(&index_lock, 1);
                add_files_to_cache(also ? prefix : NULL, pathspec, 0);
                refresh_cache_or_die(refresh_flags);
-               update_main_cache_tree(1);
+               update_main_cache_tree(WRITE_TREE_SILENT);
                if (write_cache(fd, active_cache, active_nr) ||
                    close_lock_file(&index_lock))
                        die(_("unable to write new_index file"));
                fd = hold_locked_index(&index_lock, 1);
                refresh_cache_or_die(refresh_flags);
                if (active_cache_changed) {
-                       update_main_cache_tree(1);
+                       update_main_cache_tree(WRITE_TREE_SILENT);
                        if (write_cache(fd, active_cache, active_nr) ||
                            commit_locked_index(&index_lock))
                                die(_("unable to write new_index file"));
 
        if (author_message) {
                const char *a, *lb, *rb, *eol;
+               size_t len;
 
                a = strstr(author_message_buffer, "\nauthor ");
                if (!a)
                                         (a + strlen("\nauthor "))));
                email = xmemdupz(lb + strlen("<"), rb - (lb + strlen("<")));
                date = xmemdupz(rb + strlen("> "), eol - (rb + strlen("> ")));
+               len = eol - (rb + strlen("> "));
+               date = xmalloc(len + 2);
+               *date = '@';
+               memcpy(date + 1, rb + strlen("> "), len);
+               date[len + 1] = '\0';
        }
 
        if (force_author) {