}
 
 /* returns 0 upon success, and writes result into sha1 */
-static int diff_get_patch_id(struct diff_options *options, unsigned char *sha1)
+static int diff_get_patch_id(struct diff_options *options, unsigned char *sha1, int diff_header_only)
 {
        struct diff_queue_struct *q = &diff_queued_diff;
        int i;
 
                diff_fill_sha1_info(p->one);
                diff_fill_sha1_info(p->two);
-               if (fill_mmfile(&mf1, p->one) < 0 ||
-                               fill_mmfile(&mf2, p->two) < 0)
-                       return error("unable to read files to diff");
 
                len1 = remove_space(p->one->path, strlen(p->one->path));
                len2 = remove_space(p->two->path, strlen(p->two->path));
                                        len2, p->two->path);
                git_SHA1_Update(&ctx, buffer, len1);
 
+               if (diff_header_only)
+                       continue;
+
+               if (fill_mmfile(&mf1, p->one) < 0 ||
+                   fill_mmfile(&mf2, p->two) < 0)
+                       return error("unable to read files to diff");
+
                if (diff_filespec_is_binary(p->one) ||
                    diff_filespec_is_binary(p->two)) {
                        git_SHA1_Update(&ctx, sha1_to_hex(p->one->sha1), 40);
        return 0;
 }
 
-int diff_flush_patch_id(struct diff_options *options, unsigned char *sha1)
+int diff_flush_patch_id(struct diff_options *options, unsigned char *sha1, int diff_header_only)
 {
        struct diff_queue_struct *q = &diff_queued_diff;
        int i;
-       int result = diff_get_patch_id(options, sha1);
+       int result = diff_get_patch_id(options, sha1, diff_header_only);
 
        for (i = 0; i < q->nr; i++)
                diff_free_filepair(q->queue[i]);
 
 extern int run_diff_index(struct rev_info *revs, int cached);
 
 extern int do_diff_cache(const unsigned char *, struct diff_options *);
-extern int diff_flush_patch_id(struct diff_options *, unsigned char *);
+extern int diff_flush_patch_id(struct diff_options *, unsigned char *, int);
 
 extern int diff_result_code(struct diff_options *, int);
 
 
        else
                diff_root_tree_sha1(commit->object.oid.hash, "", options);
        diffcore_std(options);
-       return diff_flush_patch_id(options, sha1);
+       return diff_flush_patch_id(options, sha1, 0);
 }
 
 static int patch_id_cmp(struct patch_id *a,