diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index cf504963c2..8f4432ae57 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1334,10 +1334,11 @@ THIRD_PARTY_SOURCES += compat/regex/%
 THIRD_PARTY_SOURCES += sha1collisiondetection/%
 THIRD_PARTY_SOURCES += sha1dc/%
 
-UNIT_TEST_PROGRAMS += t-mem-pool
-UNIT_TEST_PROGRAMS += t-strbuf
 UNIT_TEST_PROGRAMS += t-ctype
+UNIT_TEST_PROGRAMS += t-mem-pool
 UNIT_TEST_PROGRAMS += t-prio-queue
+UNIT_TEST_PROGRAMS += t-strbuf
+UNIT_TEST_PROGRAMS += t-trailer
 UNIT_TEST_PROGS = $(patsubst %,$(UNIT_TEST_BIN)/%$X,$(UNIT_TEST_PROGRAMS))
 UNIT_TEST_OBJS = $(patsubst %,$(UNIT_TEST_DIR)/%.o,$(UNIT_TEST_PROGRAMS))
 UNIT_TEST_OBJS += $(UNIT_TEST_DIR)/test-lib.o
diff --git a/builtin/interpret-trailers.c b/builtin/interpret-trailers.c
index 8768bfea3c..1d969494cf 100644
--- a/builtin/interpret-trailers.c
+++ b/builtin/interpret-trailers.c
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ static void interpret_trailers(const struct process_trailer_options *opts,
 	LIST_HEAD(head);
 	struct strbuf sb = STRBUF_INIT;
 	struct strbuf trailer_block = STRBUF_INIT;
-	struct trailer_info info;
+	struct trailer_info *info;
 	FILE *outfile = stdout;
 
 	trailer_config_init();
@@ -151,13 +151,13 @@ static void interpret_trailers(const struct process_trailer_options *opts,
 	if (opts->in_place)
 		outfile = create_in_place_tempfile(file);
 
-	parse_trailers(opts, &info, sb.buf, &head);
+	info = parse_trailers(opts, sb.buf, &head);
 
 	/* Print the lines before the trailers */
 	if (!opts->only_trailers)
-		fwrite(sb.buf, 1, info.trailer_block_start, outfile);
+		fwrite(sb.buf, 1, trailer_block_start(info), outfile);
 
-	if (!opts->only_trailers && !info.blank_line_before_trailer)
+	if (!opts->only_trailers && !blank_line_before_trailer_block(info))
 		fprintf(outfile, "\n");
 
 
@@ -178,8 +178,8 @@ static void interpret_trailers(const struct process_trailer_options *opts,
 
 	/* Print the lines after the trailers as is */
 	if (!opts->only_trailers)
-		fwrite(sb.buf + info.trailer_block_end, 1, sb.len - info.trailer_block_end, outfile);
-	trailer_info_release(&info);
+		fwrite(sb.buf + trailer_block_end(info), 1, sb.len - trailer_block_end(info), outfile);
+	trailer_info_release(info);
 
 	if (opts->in_place)
 		if (rename_tempfile(&trailers_tempfile, file))
diff --git a/sequencer.c b/sequencer.c
index dbd60d79b9..aa2a239835 100644
--- a/sequencer.c
+++ b/sequencer.c
@@ -359,35 +359,32 @@ static const char *get_todo_path(const struct replay_opts *opts)
 static int has_conforming_footer(struct strbuf *sb, struct strbuf *sob,
 	size_t ignore_footer)
 {
-	struct process_trailer_options opts = PROCESS_TRAILER_OPTIONS_INIT;
-	struct trailer_info info;
-	size_t i;
+	struct trailer_iterator iter;
+	size_t i = 0;
 	int found_sob = 0, found_sob_last = 0;
 	char saved_char;
 
-	opts.no_divider = 1;
-
 	if (ignore_footer) {
 		saved_char = sb->buf[sb->len - ignore_footer];
 		sb->buf[sb->len - ignore_footer] = '\0';
 	}
 
-	trailer_info_get(&opts, sb->buf, &info);
+	trailer_iterator_init(&iter, sb->buf);
 
 	if (ignore_footer)
 		sb->buf[sb->len - ignore_footer] = saved_char;
 
-	if (info.trailer_block_start == info.trailer_block_end)
+	while (trailer_iterator_advance(&iter)) {
+		i++;
+		if (sob && !strncmp(iter.raw, sob->buf, sob->len))
+			found_sob = i;
+	}
+	trailer_iterator_release(&iter);
+
+	if (!i)
 		return 0;
 
-	for (i = 0; i < info.trailer_nr; i++)
-		if (sob && !strncmp(info.trailers[i], sob->buf, sob->len)) {
-			found_sob = 1;
-			if (i == info.trailer_nr - 1)
-				found_sob_last = 1;
-		}
-
-	trailer_info_release(&info);
+	found_sob_last = (int)i == found_sob;
 
 	if (found_sob_last)
 		return 3;
diff --git a/t/unit-tests/t-trailer.c b/t/unit-tests/t-trailer.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2ecca359d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/unit-tests/t-trailer.c
@@ -0,0 +1,315 @@
+#include "test-lib.h"
+#include "trailer.h"
+
+struct contents {
+	const char *raw;
+	const char *key;
+	const char *val;
+};
+
+static void t_trailer_iterator(const char *msg, size_t num_expected,
+			       struct contents *contents)
+{
+	struct trailer_iterator iter;
+	size_t i = 0;
+
+	trailer_iterator_init(&iter, msg);
+	while (trailer_iterator_advance(&iter)) {
+		if (num_expected) {
+			check_str(iter.raw, contents[i].raw);
+			check_str(iter.key.buf, contents[i].key);
+			check_str(iter.val.buf, contents[i].val);
+		}
+		i++;
+	}
+	trailer_iterator_release(&iter);
+
+	check_uint(i, ==, num_expected);
+}
+
+static void run_t_trailer_iterator(void)
+{
+
+	static struct test_cases {
+		const char *name;
+		const char *msg;
+		size_t num_expected;
+		struct contents contents[10];
+	} tc[] = {
+		{
+			"empty input",
+			"",
+			0,
+			{{0}},
+		},
+		{
+			"no newline at beginning",
+			"Fixes: x\n"
+			"Acked-by: x\n"
+			"Reviewed-by: x\n",
+			0,
+			{{0}},
+		},
+		{
+			"newline at beginning",
+			"\n"
+			"Fixes: x\n"
+			"Acked-by: x\n"
+			"Reviewed-by: x\n",
+			3,
+			{
+				{
+					.raw = "Fixes: x\n",
+					.key = "Fixes",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					.raw = "Acked-by: x\n",
+					.key = "Acked-by",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					.raw = "Reviewed-by: x\n",
+					.key = "Reviewed-by",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					0
+				},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			"without body text",
+			"subject: foo bar\n"
+			"\n"
+			"Fixes: x\n"
+			"Acked-by: x\n"
+			"Reviewed-by: x\n",
+			3,
+			{
+				{
+					.raw = "Fixes: x\n",
+					.key = "Fixes",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					.raw = "Acked-by: x\n",
+					.key = "Acked-by",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					.raw = "Reviewed-by: x\n",
+					.key = "Reviewed-by",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					0
+				},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			"with body text, without divider",
+			"my subject\n"
+			"\n"
+			"my body which is long\n"
+			"and contains some special\n"
+			"chars like : = ? !\n"
+			"hello\n"
+			"\n"
+			"Fixes: x\n"
+			"Acked-by: x\n"
+			"Reviewed-by: x\n"
+			"Signed-off-by: x\n",
+			4,
+			{
+				{
+					.raw = "Fixes: x\n",
+					.key = "Fixes",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					.raw = "Acked-by: x\n",
+					.key = "Acked-by",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					.raw = "Reviewed-by: x\n",
+					.key = "Reviewed-by",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					.raw = "Signed-off-by: x\n",
+					.key = "Signed-off-by",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					0
+				},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			"with body text, without divider (second trailer block)",
+			"my subject\n"
+			"\n"
+			"my body which is long\n"
+			"and contains some special\n"
+			"chars like : = ? !\n"
+			"hello\n"
+			"\n"
+			"Fixes: x\n"
+			"Acked-by: x\n"
+			"Reviewed-by: x\n"
+			"Signed-off-by: x\n"
+			"\n"
+			/*
+			 * Because this is the last trailer block, it takes
+			 * precedence over the first one encountered above.
+			 */
+			"Helped-by: x\n"
+			"Signed-off-by: x\n",
+			2,
+			{
+				{
+					.raw = "Helped-by: x\n",
+					.key = "Helped-by",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					.raw = "Signed-off-by: x\n",
+					.key = "Signed-off-by",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					0
+				},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			"with body text, with divider",
+			"my subject\n"
+			"\n"
+			"my body which is long\n"
+			"and contains some special\n"
+			"chars like : = ? !\n"
+			"hello\n"
+			"\n"
+			"---\n"
+			"\n"
+			/*
+			 * This trailer still counts because the iterator
+			 * always ignores the divider.
+			 */
+			"Signed-off-by: x\n",
+			1,
+			{
+				{
+					.raw = "Signed-off-by: x\n",
+					.key = "Signed-off-by",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					0
+				},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			"with non-trailer lines in trailer block",
+			"subject: foo bar\n"
+			"\n"
+			/*
+			 * Even though this trailer block has a non-trailer line
+			 * in it, it's still a valid trailer block because it's
+			 * at least 25% trailers and is Git-generated (see
+			 * git_generated_prefixes[] in trailer.c).
+			 */
+			"not a trailer line\n"
+			"not a trailer line\n"
+			"not a trailer line\n"
+			"Signed-off-by: x\n",
+			/*
+			 * Even though there is only really 1 real "trailer"
+			 * (Signed-off-by), we still have 4 trailer objects
+			 * because we still want to iterate through the entire
+			 * block.
+			 */
+			4,
+			{
+				{
+					.raw = "not a trailer line\n",
+					.key = "not a trailer line",
+					.val = "",
+				},
+				{
+					.raw = "not a trailer line\n",
+					.key = "not a trailer line",
+					.val = "",
+				},
+				{
+					.raw = "not a trailer line\n",
+					.key = "not a trailer line",
+					.val = "",
+				},
+				{
+					.raw = "Signed-off-by: x\n",
+					.key = "Signed-off-by",
+					.val = "x",
+				},
+				{
+					0
+				},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			"with non-trailer lines (one too many) in trailer block",
+			"subject: foo bar\n"
+			"\n"
+			/*
+			 * This block has only 20% trailers, so it's below the
+			 * 25% threshold.
+			 */
+			"not a trailer line\n"
+			"not a trailer line\n"
+			"not a trailer line\n"
+			"not a trailer line\n"
+			"Signed-off-by: x\n",
+			0,
+			{{0}},
+		},
+		{
+			"with non-trailer lines (only 1) in trailer block, but no Git-generated trailers",
+			"subject: foo bar\n"
+			"\n"
+			/*
+			 * This block has only 1 non-trailer out of 10 (IOW, 90%
+			 * trailers) but is not considered a trailer block
+			 * because the 25% threshold only applies to cases where
+			 * there was a Git-generated trailer.
+			 */
+			"Reviewed-by: x\n"
+			"Reviewed-by: x\n"
+			"Reviewed-by: x\n"
+			"Helped-by: x\n"
+			"Helped-by: x\n"
+			"Helped-by: x\n"
+			"Acked-by: x\n"
+			"Acked-by: x\n"
+			"Acked-by: x\n"
+			"not a trailer line\n",
+			0,
+			{{0}},
+		},
+	};
+
+	for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(tc) / sizeof(tc[0]); i++) {
+		TEST(t_trailer_iterator(tc[i].msg,
+					tc[i].num_expected,
+					tc[i].contents),
+		     "%s", tc[i].name);
+	}
+}
+
+int cmd_main(int argc, const char **argv)
+{
+	run_t_trailer_iterator();
+	return test_done();
+}
diff --git a/trailer.c b/trailer.c
index 724cb78be5..2bcb9ba8f7 100644
--- a/trailer.c
+++ b/trailer.c
@@ -11,6 +11,27 @@
  * Copyright (c) 2013, 2014 Christian Couder <chriscool@tuxfamily.org>
  */
 
+struct trailer_info {
+	/*
+	 * True if there is a blank line before the location pointed to by
+	 * trailer_block_start.
+	 */
+	int blank_line_before_trailer;
+
+	/*
+	 * Offsets to the trailer block start and end positions in the input
+	 * string. If no trailer block is found, these are both set to the
+	 * "true" end of the input (find_end_of_log_message()).
+	 */
+	size_t trailer_block_start, trailer_block_end;
+
+	/*
+	 * Array of trailers found.
+	 */
+	char **trailers;
+	size_t trailer_nr;
+};
+
 struct conf_info {
 	char *name;
 	char *key;
@@ -952,58 +973,16 @@ static void unfold_value(struct strbuf *val)
 	strbuf_release(&out);
 }
 
-/*
- * Parse trailers in "str", populating the trailer info and "head"
- * linked list structure.
- */
-void parse_trailers(const struct process_trailer_options *opts,
-		    struct trailer_info *info,
-		    const char *str,
-		    struct list_head *head)
+static struct trailer_info *trailer_info_new(void)
 {
-	struct strbuf tok = STRBUF_INIT;
-	struct strbuf val = STRBUF_INIT;
-	size_t i;
-
-	trailer_info_get(opts, str, info);
-
-	for (i = 0; i < info->trailer_nr; i++) {
-		int separator_pos;
-		char *trailer = info->trailers[i];
-		if (starts_with(trailer, comment_line_str))
-			continue;
-		separator_pos = find_separator(trailer, separators);
-		if (separator_pos >= 1) {
-			parse_trailer(&tok, &val, NULL, trailer,
-				      separator_pos);
-			if (opts->unfold)
-				unfold_value(&val);
-			add_trailer_item(head,
-					 strbuf_detach(&tok, NULL),
-					 strbuf_detach(&val, NULL));
-		} else if (!opts->only_trailers) {
-			strbuf_addstr(&val, trailer);
-			strbuf_strip_suffix(&val, "\n");
-			add_trailer_item(head,
-					 NULL,
-					 strbuf_detach(&val, NULL));
-		}
-	}
+	struct trailer_info *info = xcalloc(1, sizeof(*info));
+	return info;
 }
 
-void free_trailers(struct list_head *trailers)
-{
-	struct list_head *pos, *p;
-	list_for_each_safe(pos, p, trailers) {
-		list_del(pos);
-		free_trailer_item(list_entry(pos, struct trailer_item, list));
-	}
-}
-
-void trailer_info_get(const struct process_trailer_options *opts,
-		      const char *str,
-		      struct trailer_info *info)
+static struct trailer_info *trailer_info_get(const struct process_trailer_options *opts,
+					     const char *str)
 {
+	struct trailer_info *info = trailer_info_new();
 	size_t end_of_log_message = 0, trailer_block_start = 0;
 	struct strbuf **trailer_lines, **ptr;
 	char **trailer_strings = NULL;
@@ -1042,6 +1021,73 @@ void trailer_info_get(const struct process_trailer_options *opts,
 	info->trailer_block_end = end_of_log_message;
 	info->trailers = trailer_strings;
 	info->trailer_nr = nr;
+
+	return info;
+}
+
+/*
+ * Parse trailers in "str", populating the trailer info and "trailer_objects"
+ * linked list structure.
+ */
+struct trailer_info *parse_trailers(const struct process_trailer_options *opts,
+				    const char *str,
+				    struct list_head *trailer_objects)
+{
+	struct trailer_info *info;
+	struct strbuf tok = STRBUF_INIT;
+	struct strbuf val = STRBUF_INIT;
+	size_t i;
+
+	info = trailer_info_get(opts, str);
+
+	for (i = 0; i < info->trailer_nr; i++) {
+		int separator_pos;
+		char *trailer = info->trailers[i];
+		if (starts_with(trailer, comment_line_str))
+			continue;
+		separator_pos = find_separator(trailer, separators);
+		if (separator_pos >= 1) {
+			parse_trailer(&tok, &val, NULL, trailer,
+				      separator_pos);
+			if (opts->unfold)
+				unfold_value(&val);
+			add_trailer_item(trailer_objects,
+					 strbuf_detach(&tok, NULL),
+					 strbuf_detach(&val, NULL));
+		} else if (!opts->only_trailers) {
+			strbuf_addstr(&val, trailer);
+			strbuf_strip_suffix(&val, "\n");
+			add_trailer_item(trailer_objects,
+					 NULL,
+					 strbuf_detach(&val, NULL));
+		}
+	}
+
+	return info;
+}
+
+void free_trailers(struct list_head *trailers)
+{
+	struct list_head *pos, *p;
+	list_for_each_safe(pos, p, trailers) {
+		list_del(pos);
+		free_trailer_item(list_entry(pos, struct trailer_item, list));
+	}
+}
+
+size_t trailer_block_start(struct trailer_info *info)
+{
+	return info->trailer_block_start;
+}
+
+size_t trailer_block_end(struct trailer_info *info)
+{
+	return info->trailer_block_end;
+}
+
+int blank_line_before_trailer_block(struct trailer_info *info)
+{
+	return info->blank_line_before_trailer;
 }
 
 void trailer_info_release(struct trailer_info *info)
@@ -1050,6 +1096,7 @@ void trailer_info_release(struct trailer_info *info)
 	for (i = 0; i < info->trailer_nr; i++)
 		free(info->trailers[i]);
 	free(info->trailers);
+	free(info);
 }
 
 void format_trailers(const struct process_trailer_options *opts,
@@ -1117,21 +1164,19 @@ void format_trailers_from_commit(const struct process_trailer_options *opts,
 				 struct strbuf *out)
 {
 	LIST_HEAD(trailer_objects);
-	struct trailer_info info;
-
-	parse_trailers(opts, &info, msg, &trailer_objects);
+	struct trailer_info *info = parse_trailers(opts, msg, &trailer_objects);
 
 	/* If we want the whole block untouched, we can take the fast path. */
 	if (!opts->only_trailers && !opts->unfold && !opts->filter &&
 	    !opts->separator && !opts->key_only && !opts->value_only &&
 	    !opts->key_value_separator) {
-		strbuf_add(out, msg + info.trailer_block_start,
-			   info.trailer_block_end - info.trailer_block_start);
+		strbuf_add(out, msg + info->trailer_block_start,
+			   info->trailer_block_end - info->trailer_block_start);
 	} else
 		format_trailers(opts, &trailer_objects, out);
 
 	free_trailers(&trailer_objects);
-	trailer_info_release(&info);
+	trailer_info_release(info);
 }
 
 void trailer_iterator_init(struct trailer_iterator *iter, const char *msg)
@@ -1140,23 +1185,21 @@ void trailer_iterator_init(struct trailer_iterator *iter, const char *msg)
 	strbuf_init(&iter->key, 0);
 	strbuf_init(&iter->val, 0);
 	opts.no_divider = 1;
-	trailer_info_get(&opts, msg, &iter->internal.info);
+	iter->internal.info = trailer_info_get(&opts, msg);
 	iter->internal.cur = 0;
 }
 
 int trailer_iterator_advance(struct trailer_iterator *iter)
 {
-	while (iter->internal.cur < iter->internal.info.trailer_nr) {
-		char *trailer = iter->internal.info.trailers[iter->internal.cur++];
-		int separator_pos = find_separator(trailer, separators);
-
-		if (separator_pos < 1)
-			continue; /* not a real trailer */
+	if (iter->internal.cur < iter->internal.info->trailer_nr) {
+		char *line = iter->internal.info->trailers[iter->internal.cur++];
+		int separator_pos = find_separator(line, separators);
 
+		iter->raw = line;
 		strbuf_reset(&iter->key);
 		strbuf_reset(&iter->val);
 		parse_trailer(&iter->key, &iter->val, NULL,
-			      trailer, separator_pos);
+			      line, separator_pos);
 		/* Always unfold values during iteration. */
 		unfold_value(&iter->val);
 		return 1;
@@ -1166,7 +1209,7 @@ int trailer_iterator_advance(struct trailer_iterator *iter)
 
 void trailer_iterator_release(struct trailer_iterator *iter)
 {
-	trailer_info_release(&iter->internal.info);
+	trailer_info_release(iter->internal.info);
 	strbuf_release(&iter->val);
 	strbuf_release(&iter->key);
 }
diff --git a/trailer.h b/trailer.h
index c364405267..6eb53df155 100644
--- a/trailer.h
+++ b/trailer.h
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 #include "list.h"
 #include "strbuf.h"
 
+struct trailer_info;
 struct strvec;
 
 enum trailer_where {
@@ -31,27 +32,6 @@ int trailer_set_where(enum trailer_where *item, const char *value);
 int trailer_set_if_exists(enum trailer_if_exists *item, const char *value);
 int trailer_set_if_missing(enum trailer_if_missing *item, const char *value);
 
-struct trailer_info {
-	/*
-	 * True if there is a blank line before the location pointed to by
-	 * trailer_block_start.
-	 */
-	int blank_line_before_trailer;
-
-	/*
-	 * Offsets to the trailer block start and end positions in the input
-	 * string. If no trailer block is found, these are both set to the
-	 * "true" end of the input (find_end_of_log_message()).
-	 */
-	size_t trailer_block_start, trailer_block_end;
-
-	/*
-	 * Array of trailers found.
-	 */
-	char **trailers;
-	size_t trailer_nr;
-};
-
 /*
  * A list that represents newly-added trailers, such as those provided
  * with the --trailer command line option of git-interpret-trailers.
@@ -91,15 +71,63 @@ void parse_trailers_from_command_line_args(struct list_head *arg_head,
 void process_trailers_lists(struct list_head *head,
 			    struct list_head *arg_head);
 
-void parse_trailers(const struct process_trailer_options *,
-		    struct trailer_info *,
-		    const char *str,
-		    struct list_head *head);
+/*
+ * Given some input string "str", return a pointer to an opaque trailer_info
+ * structure. Also populate the trailer_objects list with parsed trailer
+ * objects. Internally this calls trailer_info_get() to get the opaque pointer,
+ * but does some extra work to populate the trailer_objects linked list.
+ *
+ * The opaque trailer_info pointer can be used to check the position of the
+ * trailer block as offsets relative to the beginning of "str" in
+ * trailer_block_start() and trailer_block_end().
+ * blank_line_before_trailer_block() returns 1 if there is a blank line just
+ * before the trailer block. All of these functions are useful for preserving
+ * the input before and after the trailer block, if we were to write out the
+ * original input (but with the trailer block itself modified); see
+ * builtin/interpret-trailers.c for an example.
+ *
+ * For iterating through the parsed trailer block (if you don't care about the
+ * position of the trailer block itself in the context of the larger string text
+ * from which it was parsed), please see trailer_iterator_init() which uses the
+ * trailer_info struct internally.
+ *
+ * Lastly, callers should call trailer_info_release() when they are done using
+ * the opaque pointer.
+ *
+ * NOTE: Callers should treat both trailer_info and trailer_objects as
+ * read-only items, because there is some overlap between the two (trailer_info
+ * has "char **trailers" string array, and trailer_objects will have the same
+ * data but as a linked list of trailer_item objects). This API does not perform
+ * any synchronization between the two. In the future we should be able to
+ * reduce the duplication and use just the linked list.
+ */
+struct trailer_info *parse_trailers(const struct process_trailer_options *,
+				    const char *str,
+				    struct list_head *trailer_objects);
 
-void trailer_info_get(const struct process_trailer_options *,
-		      const char *str,
-		      struct trailer_info *);
+/*
+ * Return the offset of the start of the trailer block. That is, 0 is the start
+ * of the input ("str" in parse_trailers()) and some other positive number
+ * indicates how many bytes we have to skip over before we get to the beginning
+ * of the trailer block.
+ */
+size_t trailer_block_start(struct trailer_info *);
 
+/*
+ * Return the end of the trailer block, again relative to the start of the
+ * input.
+ */
+size_t trailer_block_end(struct trailer_info *);
+
+/*
+ * Return 1 if the trailer block had an extra newline (blank line) just before
+ * it.
+ */
+int blank_line_before_trailer_block(struct trailer_info *);
+
+/*
+ * Free trailer_info struct.
+ */
 void trailer_info_release(struct trailer_info *info);
 
 void trailer_config_init(void);
@@ -127,12 +155,19 @@ void format_trailers_from_commit(const struct process_trailer_options *,
  *   trailer_iterator_release(&iter);
  */
 struct trailer_iterator {
+	/*
+	 * Raw line (e.g., "foo: bar baz") before being parsed as a trailer
+	 * key/val pair as part of a trailer block (as the "key" and "val"
+	 * fields below). If a line fails to parse as a trailer, then the "key"
+	 * will be the entire line and "val" will be the empty string.
+	 */
+	const char *raw;
 	struct strbuf key;
 	struct strbuf val;
 
 	/* private */
 	struct {
-		struct trailer_info info;
+		struct trailer_info *info;
 		size_t cur;
 	} internal;
 };