die "parent filter failed: $filter_parent"
        fi
 
-       sed -e '1,/^$/d' <../commit | \
+       {
+               while read -r header_line && test -n "$header_line"
+               do
+                       # skip header lines...
+                       :;
+               done
+               # and output the actual commit message
+               cat
+       } <../commit |
                eval "$filter_msg" > ../message ||
                        die "msg filter failed: $filter_msg"
        workdir=$workdir @SHELL_PATH@ -c "$filter_commit" "git commit-tree" \
 
        test $orig_head != `git show-ref --hash --head HEAD`
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'filter commit message without trailing newline' '
+       git reset --hard original &&
+       commit=$(printf "no newline" | git commit-tree HEAD^{tree}) &&
+       git update-ref refs/heads/no-newline $commit &&
+       git filter-branch -f refs/heads/no-newline &&
+       echo $commit >expect &&
+       git rev-parse refs/heads/no-newline >actual &&
+       test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
 test_done