If there are any empty files in the changeset, the resulting SVN patch will look like this: Index: path/to/emptyfile.txt =================================================================== — path/to/emptyfile.txt Tue May 27 10:56:46 EST 2008 +++ path/to/emptyfile.txt Tue May 27 10:56:46 EST 2008 @@ -0,0 +1,0 @@ Index: path/to/nextfile.txt As you can see, it claims to have 1 added line, but then doesn't include an added line. This causes an issue for applications which parse the patch. svn's own output (which I assume to be correct) is as follows: Index: path/to/emptyfile.txt =================================================================== Index: path/to/nextfile.txt