--- /dev/null
+Git 2.16 Release Notes
+======================
+
+Backward compatibility notes and other notable changes.
+
+ * Use of an empty string as a pathspec element that is used for
+ 'everything matches' is now an error.
+
+
+Updates since v2.15
+-------------------
+
+UI, Workflows & Features
+
+ * An empty string as a pathspec element that means "everything"
+ i.e. 'git add ""', is now illegal. We started this by first
+ deprecating and warning a pathspec that has such an element in
+ 2.11 (Nov 2016).
+
+
+Performance, Internal Implementation, Development Support etc.
+
+ * An earlier update made it possible to use an on-stack in-core
+ lockfile structure (as opposed to having to deliberately leak an
+ on-heap one). Many codepaths have been updated to take advantage
+ of this new facility.
+ (merge b74c90fb41 ma/lockfile-fixes later to maint).
+
+ * Calling cmd_foo() as if it is a general purpose helper function is
+ a no-no. Correct two instances of such to set an example.
+ (merge a92b1095d1 jc/no-cmd-as-subroutine later to maint).
+
+ * We try to see if somebody runs our test suite with a shell that
+ does not support "local" like bash/dash does.
+ (merge 01d3a526ad mh/test-local-canary later to maint).
+
+
+Also contains various documentation updates and code clean-ups.
+
+
+Fixes since v2.15
+-----------------
+
+ * "auto" as a value for the columnar output configuration ought to
+ judge "is the output consumed by humans?" with the same criteria as
+ "auto" for coloured output configuration, i.e. either the standard
+ output stream is going to tty, or a pager is in use. We forgot the
+ latter, which has been fixed.
+ (merge 965ff23a43 kd/auto-col-with-pager-fix later to maint).
+
+ * The experimental "color moved lines differently in diff output"
+ feature was buggy around "ignore whitespace changes" edges, whihch
+ has been corrected.
+ (merge b66b507292 jk/diff-color-moved-fix later to maint).
+
+ * Instead of using custom line comparison and hashing functions to
+ implement "moved lines" coloring in the diff output, use the pair
+ of these functions from lower-layer xdiff/ code.
+ (merge 01be97c2b2 sb/diff-color-moved-use-xdl-recmatch later to maint).
+
+ * Some codepaths did not check for errors when asking what branch the
+ HEAD points at, which have been fixed.
+ (merge dbd2b55cb7 jk/misc-resolve-ref-unsafe-fixes later to maint).
+
+ * "git commit", after making a commit, did not check for errors when
+ asking on what branch it made the commit, which has been correted.
+ (merge c26de08370 ao/check-resolve-ref-unsafe-result later to maint).
+
+ * "git status --ignored -u" did not stop at a working tree of a
+ separate project that is embedded in an ignored directory and
+ listed files in that other project, instead of just showing the
+ directory itself as ignored.
+ (merge fadb4820c4 js/submodule-in-excluded later to maint).
+
+ * A broken access to object databases in recent update to "git grep
+ --recurse-submodules" has been fixed.
+ (merge 9560e6245a bw/grep-recurse-submodules later to maint).
+
+ * A recent regression in "git rebase -i" that broke execution of git
+ commands from subdirectories via "exec" insn has been fixed.
+ (merge 09d7b6c6fa jk/rebase-i-exec-gitdir-fix later to maint).
+
+ * Other minor doc, test and build updates and code cleanups.
+ (merge bab76141da cn/diff-indent-no-longer-is-experimental later to maint).