diff --git a/contrib/git-svn/git-svn.perl b/contrib/git-svn/git-svn.perl
index 1f9a470f0c..67368a502b 100755
--- a/contrib/git-svn/git-svn.perl
+++ b/contrib/git-svn/git-svn.perl
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ use Getopt::Long qw/:config gnu_getopt no_ignore_case auto_abbrev/;
 use File::Spec qw//;
 use POSIX qw/strftime/;
 my $sha1 = qr/[a-f\d]{40}/;
-my $sha1_short = qr/[a-f\d]{6,40}/;
+my $sha1_short = qr/[a-f\d]{4,40}/;
 my ($_revision,$_stdin,$_no_ignore_ext,$_no_stop_copy,$_help,$_rmdir,$_edit,
 	$_find_copies_harder, $_l, $_version, $_upgrade);
 my (@_branch_from, %tree_map);
@@ -90,12 +90,12 @@ Usage: $0 <command> [options] [arguments]\n
 Available commands:
 
 	foreach (sort keys %cmd) {
-		print $fd '  ',pack('A10',$_),$cmd{$_}->[1],"\n";
+		print $fd '  ',pack('A13',$_),$cmd{$_}->[1],"\n";
 	}
 	print $fd <<"";
 \nGIT_SVN_ID may be set in the environment to an arbitrary identifier if
 you're tracking multiple SVN branches/repositories in one git repository
-and want to keep them separate.
+and want to keep them separate.  See git-svn(1) for more information.
 
 	exit $exit;
 }
@@ -245,7 +245,7 @@ sub commit {
 		print "Reading from stdin...\n";
 		@commits = ();
 		while (<STDIN>) {
-			if (/\b([a-f\d]{6,40})\b/) {
+			if (/\b($sha1_short)\b/) {
 				unshift @commits, $1;
 			}
 		}
@@ -267,7 +267,6 @@ sub commit {
 	chdir $SVN_WC or croak $!;
 	my $svn_current_rev =  svn_info('.')->{'Last Changed Rev'};
 	foreach my $c (@revs) {
-		print "Committing $c\n";
 		my $mods = svn_checkout_tree($svn_current_rev, $c);
 		if (scalar @$mods == 0) {
 			print "Skipping, no changes detected\n";
@@ -514,7 +513,7 @@ sub svn_checkout_tree {
 	my ($svn_rev, $treeish) = @_;
 	my $from = file_to_s("$REV_DIR/$svn_rev");
 	assert_svn_wc_clean($svn_rev,$from);
-	print "diff-tree '$from' '$treeish'\n";
+	print "diff-tree $from $treeish\n";
 	my $pid = open my $diff_fh, '-|';
 	defined $pid or croak $!;
 	if ($pid == 0) {
@@ -525,7 +524,7 @@ sub svn_checkout_tree {
 	}
 	my $mods = parse_diff_tree($diff_fh);
 	unless (@$mods) {
-		# git can do empty commits, SVN doesn't allow it...
+		# git can do empty commits, but SVN doesn't allow it...
 		return $mods;
 	}
 	my ($rm, $add) = precommit_check($mods);
@@ -612,7 +611,7 @@ sub svn_commit_tree {
 	my ($svn_rev, $commit) = @_;
 	my $commit_msg = "$GIT_DIR/$GIT_SVN/.svn-commit.tmp.$$";
 	my %log_msg = ( msg => '' );
-	open my $msg, '>', $commit_msg  or croak $!;
+	open my $msg, '>', $commit_msg or croak $!;
 
 	chomp(my $type = `git-cat-file -t $commit`);
 	if ($type eq 'commit') {
@@ -627,7 +626,6 @@ sub svn_commit_tree {
 			if (!$in_msg) {
 				$in_msg = 1 if (/^\s*$/);
 			} else {
-				$log_msg{msg} .= $_;
 				print $msg $_ or croak $!;
 			}
 		}
@@ -639,6 +637,15 @@ sub svn_commit_tree {
 		my $editor = $ENV{VISUAL} || $ENV{EDITOR} || 'vi';
 		system($editor, $commit_msg);
 	}
+
+	# file_to_s removes all trailing newlines, so just use chomp() here:
+	open $msg, '<', $commit_msg or croak $!;
+	{ local $/; chomp($log_msg{msg} = <$msg>); }
+	close $msg or croak $!;
+
+	my ($oneline) = ($log_msg{msg} =~ /([^\n\r]+)/);
+	print "Committing $commit: $oneline\n";
+
 	my @ci_output = safe_qx(qw(svn commit -F),$commit_msg);
 	my ($committed) = grep(/^Committed revision \d+\./,@ci_output);
 	unlink $commit_msg;
@@ -1037,7 +1044,7 @@ diff-index line ($m hash)
 	mode_a => first column of diff-index output, no leading ':',
 	mode_b => second column of diff-index output,
 	sha1_b => sha1sum of the final blob,
-	chg => change type [MCRAD],
+	chg => change type [MCRADT],
 	file_a => original file name of a file (iff chg is 'C' or 'R')
 	file_b => new/current file name of a file (any chg)
 }