diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.3.1.txt b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.3.1.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fc3ea185a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.3.1.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+Git v1.8.3.1 Release Notes
+========================
+
+Fixes since v1.8.3
+------------------
+
+ * When $HOME is misconfigured to point at an unreadable directory, we
+   used to complain and die. The check has been loosened.
+
+ * Handling of negative exclude pattern for directories "!dir" was
+   broken in the update to v1.8.3.
+
+Also contains a handful of trivial code clean-ups, documentation
+updates, updates to the test suite, etc.
diff --git a/Documentation/git.txt b/Documentation/git.txt
index 68f1ee60cf..fcbca8db77 100644
--- a/Documentation/git.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git.txt
@@ -43,9 +43,10 @@ unreleased) version of Git, that is available from 'master'
 branch of the `git.git` repository.
 Documentation for older releases are available here:
 
-* link:v1.8.3/git.html[documentation for release 1.8.3]
+* link:v1.8.3.1/git.html[documentation for release 1.8.3.1]
 
 * release notes for
+  link:RelNotes/1.8.3.1.txt[1.8.3.1],
   link:RelNotes/1.8.3.txt[1.8.3].
 
 * link:v1.8.2.3/git.html[documentation for release 1.8.2.3]
diff --git a/Documentation/gitrepository-layout.txt b/Documentation/gitrepository-layout.txt
index d6f3393c5f..aa03882ddb 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitrepository-layout.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitrepository-layout.txt
@@ -211,6 +211,9 @@ shallow::
 	and maintained by shallow clone mechanism.  See `--depth`
 	option to linkgit:git-clone[1] and linkgit:git-fetch[1].
 
+modules::
+	Contains the git-repositories of the submodules.
+
 SEE ALSO
 --------
 linkgit:git-init[1],
diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index b295e2f6a9..bb92c436f7 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -1677,14 +1677,16 @@ int sigaction(int sig, struct sigaction *in, struct sigaction *out)
 #undef signal
 sig_handler_t mingw_signal(int sig, sig_handler_t handler)
 {
-	sig_handler_t old = timer_fn;
+	sig_handler_t old;
 
 	switch (sig) {
 	case SIGALRM:
+		old = timer_fn;
 		timer_fn = handler;
 		break;
 
 	case SIGINT:
+		old = sigint_fn;
 		sigint_fn = handler;
 		break;
 
diff --git a/submodule.c b/submodule.c
index e728025f60..1821a5b316 100644
--- a/submodule.c
+++ b/submodule.c
@@ -603,9 +603,8 @@ int fetch_populated_submodules(const struct argv_array *options,
 	if (!work_tree)
 		goto out;
 
-	if (!the_index.initialized)
-		if (read_cache() < 0)
-			die("index file corrupt");
+	if (read_cache() < 0)
+		die("index file corrupt");
 
 	argv_array_push(&argv, "fetch");
 	for (i = 0; i < options->argc; i++)