diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/api/RebaseCommand.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/api/RebaseCommand.java
index 0938ec105..f92459041 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/api/RebaseCommand.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/api/RebaseCommand.java
@@ -396,6 +396,7 @@ public class RebaseCommand extends GitCommand<RebaseResult> {
 		FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(file);
 		try {
 			fos.write(content.getBytes("UTF-8"));
+			fos.write('\n');
 		} finally {
 			fos.close();
 		}
@@ -458,8 +459,12 @@ public class RebaseCommand extends GitCommand<RebaseResult> {
 	}
 
 	private String readFile(File directory, String fileName) throws IOException {
-		return RawParseUtils
-				.decode(IO.readFully(new File(directory, fileName)));
+		byte[] content = IO.readFully(new File(directory, fileName));
+		// strip off the last LF
+		int end = content.length;
+		while (0 < end && content[end - 1] == '\n')
+			end--;
+		return RawParseUtils.decode(content, 0, end);
 	}
 
 	private void checkoutCommit(RevCommit commit) throws IOException {