diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.4.2.txt b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.4.2.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ebe5e68fcb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.4.2.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+Git v1.8.4.2 Release Notes
+========================
+
+Fixes since v1.8.4.1
+--------------------
+
+ * When running "fetch -q", a long silence while the sender side
+   computes the set of objects to send can be mistaken by proxies as
+   dropped connection.  The server side has been taught to send a
+   small empty messages to keep the connection alive.
+
+ * When the webserver responds with "405 Method Not Allowed", "git
+   http-backend" should tell the client what methods are allowed with
+   the "Allow" header.
+
+ * "git cvsserver" computed the permission mode bits incorrectly for
+   executable files.
+
+ * The implementation of "add -i" has a crippling code to work around
+   ActiveState Perl limitation but it by mistake also triggered on Git
+   for Windows where MSYS perl is used.
+
+ * We made sure that we notice the user-supplied GIT_DIR is actually a
+   gitfile, but did not do the same when the default ".git" is a
+   gitfile.
+
+ * When an object is not found after checking the packfiles and then
+   loose object directory, read_sha1_file() re-checks the packfiles to
+   prevent racing with a concurrent repacker; teach the same logic to
+   has_sha1_file().
+
+ * "git commit --author=$name", when $name is not in the canonical
+   "A. U. Thor <au.thor@example.xz>" format, looks for a matching name
+   from existing history, but did not consult mailmap to grab the
+   preferred author name.
+
+ * The commit object names in the insn sheet that was prepared at the
+   beginning of "rebase -i" session can become ambiguous as the
+   rebasing progresses and the repository gains more commits. Make
+   sure the internal record is kept with full 40-hex object names.
+
+ * "git rebase --preserve-merges" internally used the merge machinery
+   and as a side effect, left merge summary message in the log, but
+   when rebasing, there should not be a need for merge summary.
+
+ * "git rebase -i" forgot that the comment character can be
+   configurable while reading its insn sheet.
+
+Also contains a handful of trivial code clean-ups, documentation
+updates, updates to the test suite, etc.
diff --git a/t/t4254-am-corrupt.sh b/t/t4254-am-corrupt.sh
index b7da95fac5..85716dd6ec 100755
--- a/t/t4254-am-corrupt.sh
+++ b/t/t4254-am-corrupt.sh
@@ -3,20 +3,19 @@
 test_description='git am with corrupt input'
 . ./test-lib.sh
 
-# Note the missing "+++" line:
-cat > bad-patch.diff <<'EOF'
-From: A U Thor <au.thor@example.com>
-diff --git a/f b/f
-index 7898192..6178079 100644
---- a/f
-@@ -1 +1 @@
--a
-+b
-EOF
-
 test_expect_success setup '
-	test $? = 0 &&
-	echo a > f &&
+	# Note the missing "+++" line:
+	cat >bad-patch.diff <<-\EOF &&
+	From: A U Thor <au.thor@example.com>
+	diff --git a/f b/f
+	index 7898192..6178079 100644
+	--- a/f
+	@@ -1 +1 @@
+	-a
+	+b
+	EOF
+
+	echo a >f &&
 	git add f &&
 	test_tick &&
 	git commit -m initial
@@ -26,17 +25,12 @@ test_expect_success setup '
 #   fatal: unable to write file '(null)' mode 100644: Bad address
 # Also, it had the unwanted side-effect of deleting f.
 test_expect_success 'try to apply corrupted patch' '
-	git am bad-patch.diff 2> actual
-	test $? = 1
+	test_must_fail git am bad-patch.diff 2>actual
 '
 
-cat > expected <<EOF
-fatal: git diff header lacks filename information (line 4)
-EOF
-
 test_expect_success 'compare diagnostic; ensure file is still here' '
-	test $? = 0 &&
-	test -f f &&
+	echo "fatal: git diff header lacks filename information (line 4)" >expected &&
+	test_path_is_file f &&
 	test_cmp expected actual
 '