const char *hook_arg1 = NULL;
        const char *hook_arg2 = NULL;
        int ident_shown = 0;
+       int clean_message_contents = (cleanup_mode != CLEANUP_NONE);
 
        if (!no_verify && run_hook(index_file, "pre-commit", NULL))
                return 0;
                if (strbuf_read_file(&sb, template_file, 0) < 0)
                        die_errno(_("could not read '%s'"), template_file);
                hook_arg1 = "template";
+               clean_message_contents = 0;
        }
 
        /*
        if (s->fp == NULL)
                die_errno(_("could not open '%s'"), git_path(commit_editmsg));
 
-       if (cleanup_mode != CLEANUP_NONE)
+       if (clean_message_contents)
                stripspace(&sb, 0);
 
        if (signoff) {
 
        commit_msg_is "standard input msg"
 '
 
+cat >"$TEMPLATE" <<\EOF
+
+
+### template
+
+EOF
+test_expect_success 'commit message from template with whitespace issue' '
+       echo "content galore" >>foo &&
+       git add foo &&
+       GIT_EDITOR="$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t7500/add-whitespaced-content git commit \
+               --template "$TEMPLATE" &&
+       commit_msg_is "commit message"
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'using alternate GIT_INDEX_FILE (1)' '
 
        cp .git/index saved-index &&