next;
                }
 
-               push @merged_commit_ranges,
-                       "$bottom_commit^..$top_commit";
+               if (scalar(command('rev-parse', "$bottom_commit^@"))) {
+                       push @merged_commit_ranges,
+                            "$bottom_commit^..$top_commit";
+               } else {
+                       push @merged_commit_ranges, "$top_commit";
+               }
 
                if ( !defined $tip or $top > $tip ) {
                        $tip = $top;
 
 test_description='git svn handling of root commits in merge ranges'
 . ./lib-git-svn.sh
 
-test_expect_failure 'test handling of root commits in merge ranges' '
+test_expect_success 'test handling of root commits in merge ranges' '
        mkdir -p init/trunk init/branches init/tags &&
        echo "r1" > init/trunk/file.txt &&
        svn_cmd import -m "initial import" init "$svnrepo" &&