diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes/1.7.8.txt b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.7.8.txt
index 3c247cc231..108e6cd0ea 100644
--- a/Documentation/RelNotes/1.7.8.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.7.8.txt
@@ -40,6 +40,17 @@ Updates since v1.7.7
  * "git stash" learned "--include-untracked" option to stash away
    untracked/ignored cruft from the working tree.
 
+ * "git submodule update" learned to honor "none" as the value for
+   submodule.<name>.update to specify that the named submodule should
+   not be checked out by default.
+
+ * When populating a new submodule directory with "git submodule init",
+   the $GIT_DIR metainformation directory for submodules is created inside
+   $GIT_DIR/modules/<name>/ directory of the superproject and referenced
+   via the gitfile mechanism. This is to make it possible to switch
+   between commits in the superproject that has and does not have the
+   submodule in the tree without re-cloning.
+
  * "mediawiki" remote helper can interact with (surprise!) MediaWiki
    with "git fetch" & "git push".
 
@@ -47,16 +58,37 @@ Updates since v1.7.7
    outputs.
 
 
+Also contains other documentation updates and minor code cleanups.
+
+
 Fixes since v1.7.7
 ------------------
 
 Unless otherwise noted, all fixes in the 1.7.7.X maintenance track are
 included in this release.
 
+ * We used to drop error messages from libcurl on certain kinds of
+   errors.
+   (merge be22d92eac8 jn/maint-http-error-message later to maint).
+
+ * Adding many refs to the local repository in one go (e.g. "git fetch"
+   that fetches many tags) and looking up a ref by name in a repository
+   with too many refs were unnecessarily slow.
+   (merge 17d68a54d jp/get-ref-dir-unsorted later to maint).
+
+ * "git remote rename $a $b" were not careful to match the remote name
+   against $a (i.e. source side of the remote nickname).
+   (merge b52d00aed mz/remote-rename later to maint).
+
  * "git diff $tree $path" used to apply the pathspec at the output stage,
    reading the whole tree, wasting resources.
    (merge 2f88c1970 jc/diff-index-unpack later to maint).
 
+ * "git diff --[num]stat" used to use the number of lines of context
+   different from the default, potentially giving different results from
+   "git diff | diffstat" and confusing the users.
+   (merge f01cae918 jc/maint-diffstat-numstat-context later to maint).
+
  * The code to check for updated submodules during a "git fetch" of the
    superproject had an unnecessary quadratic loop.
    (merge 6859de45 jk/maint-fetch-submodule-check-fix later to maint).
@@ -84,6 +116,10 @@ included in this release.
 
  * "git merge" did not understand ":/<pattern>" as a way to name a commit.
 
+ * "git mergetool" learned to use its arguments as pathspec, not a path to
+   the file that may not even have any conflict.
+   (merge 6d9990a jm/mergetool-pathspec later to maint).
+
  * Tests with --valgrind failed to find "mergetool" scriptlets.
    (merge ee0d7bf92 tr/mergetool-valgrind later to maint).
 
@@ -96,12 +132,14 @@ included in this release.
    be cleaned up.
    (merge 1686519a mm/rebase-i-exec-edit later to maint).
 
+ * "gitweb" used to produce a non-working link while showing the contents
+   of a blob, when JavaScript actions are enabled.
+   (merge 2b07ff3ff ps/gitweb-js-with-lineno later to maint).
+
 ---
-it=master
 exec >/var/tmp/1
-O=v1.7.7
-O=v1.7.7-137-g2e49dab
-echo O=$(git describe --always $it)
-git log --first-parent --oneline --reverse ^$O $it
+O=v1.7.7-212-g4909bbe
+echo O=$(git describe --always master)
+git log --first-parent --oneline --reverse ^$O master
 echo
-git shortlog --no-merges ^$O $it
+git shortlog --no-merges ^$O master
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c255fc597d..5fb97f4eac 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -2293,8 +2293,7 @@ install: all
 	$(INSTALL) $(install_bindir_programs) '$(DESTDIR_SQ)$(bindir_SQ)'
 	$(MAKE) -C templates DESTDIR='$(DESTDIR_SQ)' install
 	$(INSTALL) -d -m 755 '$(DESTDIR_SQ)$(mergetools_instdir_SQ)'
-	(cd mergetools && $(TAR) cf - .) | \
-	(cd '$(DESTDIR_SQ)$(mergetools_instdir_SQ)' && umask 022 && $(TAR) xof -)
+	$(INSTALL) -m 644 mergetools/* '$(DESTDIR_SQ)$(mergetools_instdir_SQ)'
 ifndef NO_PERL
 	$(MAKE) -C perl prefix='$(prefix_SQ)' DESTDIR='$(DESTDIR_SQ)' install
 	$(MAKE) -C gitweb install
diff --git a/builtin/revert.c b/builtin/revert.c
index ee8fb94ab7..010508d571 100644
--- a/builtin/revert.c
+++ b/builtin/revert.c
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ static void verify_opt_compatible(const char *me, const char *base_opt, ...)
 
 static void verify_opt_mutually_compatible(const char *me, ...)
 {
-	const char *opt1, *opt2;
+	const char *opt1, *opt2 = NULL;
 	va_list ap;
 
 	va_start(ap, me);
diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index 629740670c..9911c97b69 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c
@@ -341,7 +341,6 @@ static void get_ref_dir(const char *submodule, const char *base,
 		free(ref);
 		closedir(dir);
 	}
-	sort_ref_array(array);
 }
 
 struct warn_if_dangling_data {
@@ -384,6 +383,7 @@ static struct ref_array *get_loose_refs(const char *submodule)
 
 	if (!refs->did_loose) {
 		get_ref_dir(submodule, "refs", &refs->loose);
+		sort_ref_array(&refs->loose);
 		refs->did_loose = 1;
 	}
 	return &refs->loose;
diff --git a/tree-walk.c b/tree-walk.c
index 4e1a7b6aa5..418107ec83 100644
--- a/tree-walk.c
+++ b/tree-walk.c
@@ -344,7 +344,7 @@ int traverse_trees(int n, struct tree_desc *t, struct traverse_info *info)
 		unsigned long mask, dirmask;
 		const char *first = NULL;
 		int first_len = 0;
-		struct name_entry *e;
+		struct name_entry *e = NULL;
 		int len;
 
 		for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {