diff --git a/apply.c b/apply.c
index 0c7b25989c..3aadbae305 100644
--- a/apply.c
+++ b/apply.c
@@ -975,7 +975,7 @@ static int gitdiff_verify_name(struct apply_state *state,
 		}
 		free(another);
 	} else {
-		if (!starts_with(line, "/dev/null\n"))
+		if (!is_dev_null(line))
 			return error(_("git apply: bad git-diff - expected /dev/null on line %d"), state->linenr);
 	}
 
diff --git a/t/t4135-apply-weird-filenames.sh b/t/t4135-apply-weird-filenames.sh
index b14b808578..c7c688fcc4 100755
--- a/t/t4135-apply-weird-filenames.sh
+++ b/t/t4135-apply-weird-filenames.sh
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ deleted file mode 100644
 -
 EOF
 
-test_expect_failure 'apply handles a diff generated by Subversion' '
+test_expect_success 'apply handles a diff generated by Subversion' '
 	>Makefile &&
 	git apply -p2 diff-from-svn &&
 	test_path_is_missing Makefile