Here is a patch from A U Thor. This addresses the issue raised in the message: From: Nit Picker <nit.picker@example.net> Subject: foo is too old Message-Id: <nitpicker.12121212@example.net> Hopefully this would fix the problem stated there. I have included an extra blank line above, but it does not have to be stripped away here, along with the whitespaces at the end of the above line. They are expected to be squashed when the message is made into a commit log by stripspace, Also, there are three blank lines after this paragraph, two truly blank and another full of spaces in between. Hope this helps.