diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes-1.7.2.txt b/Documentation/RelNotes-1.7.2.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..37781b4f14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/RelNotes-1.7.2.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+Git v1.7.2 Release Notes (draft)
+================================
+
+Updates since v1.7.1
+--------------------
+
+ * After "git apply --whitespace=fix" removed trailing blank lines in an
+   patch in a patch series, it failed to apply later patches that depend
+   on the presense of such blank lines.
+
+ * The output from the textconv filter used by "git diff" can be cached to
+   speed up their reuse.
+
+ * "git send-email" learned --smtp-domain option to specify the domainname
+   used in the EHLO/HELO exchange.
+
+ * "git revert" learned --strategy option to specify the merge strategy.
+
+ * The whitespace rules used in "git apply --whitespace" and "git diff"
+   gained a new member in the family (tab-in-indent) to help projects with
+   policy to indent only with spaces.
+
+ * Authentication over http transport can now be made lazily, in that the
+   request can first go to a URL without username, get a 401 response and
+   then the client will ask for the username to use.
+
+
+Fixes since v1.7.1
+------------------
+
+ * In 1.7.1, "git status" stopped refreshing the index by mistake.
+
+All of the fixes in v1.7.1.X maintenance series are included in this
+release, unless otherwise noted.
+
+--
+exec >/var/tmp/1
+O=v1.7.1-77-gb751157
+echo O=$(git describe master)
+git shortlog --no-merges master ^maint ^$O
diff --git a/GIT-VERSION-GEN b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
index 0ad39484ec..59219bd6a5 100755
--- a/GIT-VERSION-GEN
+++ b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
 GVF=GIT-VERSION-FILE
-DEF_VER=v1.7.1
+DEF_VER=v1.7.1.GIT
 
 LF='
 '
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index ef567ef031..0e35f6dea8 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -2115,7 +2115,7 @@ clean:
 	$(RM) $(htmldocs).tar.gz $(manpages).tar.gz
 	$(MAKE) -C Documentation/ clean
 ifndef NO_PERL
-	$(RM) gitweb/gitweb.cgi gitweb/gitweb.min.*
+	$(MAKE) -C gitweb clean
 	$(MAKE) -C perl clean
 endif
 ifndef NO_PYTHON
diff --git a/RelNotes b/RelNotes
index 00e77229dd..3da01a5622 120000
--- a/RelNotes
+++ b/RelNotes
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Documentation/RelNotes-1.7.1.txt
\ No newline at end of file
+Documentation/RelNotes-1.7.2.txt
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/builtin/revert.c b/builtin/revert.c
index bbaa937ab0..7976b5a329 100644
--- a/builtin/revert.c
+++ b/builtin/revert.c
@@ -111,8 +111,13 @@ static int get_message(const char *raw_message, struct commit_message *out)
 		encoding = "UTF-8";
 	if (!git_commit_encoding)
 		git_commit_encoding = "UTF-8";
-	if ((out->reencoded_message = reencode_string(raw_message,
-					git_commit_encoding, encoding)))
+
+	out->reencoded_message = NULL;
+	out->message = raw_message;
+	if (strcmp(encoding, git_commit_encoding))
+		out->reencoded_message = reencode_string(raw_message,
+					git_commit_encoding, encoding);
+	if (out->reencoded_message)
 		out->message = out->reencoded_message;
 
 	abbrev = find_unique_abbrev(commit->object.sha1, DEFAULT_ABBREV);