diff --git a/Documentation/git-pickaxe.txt b/Documentation/git-pickaxe.txt
index 6d22fd9e99..c08fdec191 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-pickaxe.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-pickaxe.txt
@@ -111,6 +111,44 @@ The contents of the actual line is output after the above
 header, prefixed by a TAB. This is to allow adding more
 header elements later.
 
+
+SPECIFIYING RANGES
+------------------
+
+Unlike `git-blame` and `git-annotate` in older git, the extent
+of annotation can be limited to both line ranges and revision
+ranges.  When you are interested in finding the origin for
+ll. 40-60 for file `foo`, you can use `-L` option like this:
+
+	git pickaxe -L 40,60 foo
+
+When you are not interested in changes older than the version
+v2.6.18, or changes older than 3 weeks, you can use revision
+range specifiers  similar to `git-rev-list`:
+
+	git pickaxe v2.6.18.. -- foo
+	git pickaxe --since=3.weeks -- foo
+
+When revision range specifiers are used to limit the annotation,
+lines that have not changed since the range boundary (either the
+commit v2.6.18 or the most recent commit that is more than 3
+weeks old in the above example) are blamed for that range
+boundary commit.
+
+A particularly useful way is to see if an added file have lines
+created by copy-and-paste from existing files.  Sometimes this
+indicates that the developer was being sloppy and did not
+refactor the code properly.  You can first find the commit that
+introduced the file with:
+
+	git log --diff-filter=A --pretty=short -- foo
+
+and then annotate the change between the commit and its
+parents, using `commit{caret}!` notation:
+
+	git pickaxe -C -C -f $commit^! -- foo
+
+
 SEE ALSO
 --------
 gitlink:git-blame[1]
diff --git a/Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt b/Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt
index ed938aafb0..4eaf5a0d1e 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt
@@ -239,14 +239,21 @@ of `r1` and `r2` and is defined as
 It it the set of commits that are reachable from either one of
 `r1` or `r2` but not from both.
 
-Here are a few examples:
+Two other shorthands for naming a set that is formed by a commit
+and its parent commits exists.  `r1{caret}@` notation means all
+parents of `r1`.  `r1{caret}!` includes commit `r1` but excludes
+its all parents.
+
+Here are a handful examples:
 
    D                A B D
    D F              A B C D F
-   ^A G		    B D
+   ^A G             B D
    ^A F             B C F
    G...I            C D F G I
-   ^B G I	    C D F G I
+   ^B G I           C D F G I
+   F^@              A B C
+   F^! H            D F H
 
 Author
 ------
diff --git a/builtin-pickaxe.c b/builtin-pickaxe.c
index 32dc3932ed..c9405e918b 100644
--- a/builtin-pickaxe.c
+++ b/builtin-pickaxe.c
@@ -141,6 +141,8 @@ static int cmp_suspect(struct origin *a, struct origin *b)
 	return strcmp(a->path, b->path);
 }
 
+#define cmp_suspect(a, b) ( ((a)==(b)) ? 0 : cmp_suspect(a,b) )
+
 static void sanity_check_refcnt(struct scoreboard *);
 
 static void coalesce(struct scoreboard *sb)
@@ -213,6 +215,12 @@ static struct origin *find_origin(struct scoreboard *sb,
 	struct diff_options diff_opts;
 	const char *paths[2];
 
+	if (parent->util) {
+		struct origin *cached = parent->util;
+		if (!strcmp(cached->path, origin->path))
+			return origin_incref(cached);
+	}
+
 	/* See if the origin->path is different between parent
 	 * and origin first.  Most of the time they are the
 	 * same and diff-tree is fairly efficient about this.
@@ -259,6 +267,12 @@ static struct origin *find_origin(struct scoreboard *sb,
 		}
 	}
 	diff_flush(&diff_opts);
+	if (porigin) {
+		origin_incref(porigin);
+		if (parent->util)
+			origin_decref(parent->util);
+		parent->util = porigin;
+	}
 	return porigin;
 }
 
@@ -905,7 +919,7 @@ static void pass_blame(struct scoreboard *sb, struct origin *origin, int opt)
 				continue;
 			if (parse_commit(p))
 				continue;
-			porigin = find(sb, parent->item, origin);
+			porigin = find(sb, p, origin);
 			if (!porigin)
 				continue;
 			if (!hashcmp(porigin->blob_sha1, origin->blob_sha1)) {
@@ -1371,8 +1385,10 @@ static void sanity_check_refcnt(struct scoreboard *sb)
 			ent->suspect->refcnt = -ent->suspect->refcnt;
 	}
 	for (ent = sb->ent; ent; ent = ent->next) {
-		/* then pick each and see if they have the the
-		 * correct refcnt
+		/* then pick each and see if they have the the correct
+		 * refcnt; note that ->util caching means origin's refcnt
+		 * may well be greater than the number of blame entries
+		 * that use it.
 		 */
 		int found;
 		struct blame_entry *e;
@@ -1386,7 +1402,7 @@ static void sanity_check_refcnt(struct scoreboard *sb)
 				continue;
 			found++;
 		}
-		if (suspect->refcnt != found)
+		if (suspect->refcnt < found)
 			baa = 1;
 	}
 	if (baa) {
diff --git a/revision.c b/revision.c
index 3dbc26c49c..993bb668a2 100644
--- a/revision.c
+++ b/revision.c
@@ -657,6 +657,13 @@ int handle_revision_arg(const char *arg, struct rev_info *revs,
 			return 0;
 		*dotdot = '^';
 	}
+	dotdot = strstr(arg, "^!");
+	if (dotdot && !dotdot[2]) {
+		*dotdot = 0;
+		if (!add_parents_only(revs, arg, flags ^ UNINTERESTING))
+			*dotdot = '^';
+	}
+
 	local_flags = 0;
 	if (*arg == '^') {
 		local_flags = UNINTERESTING;