diff --git a/xdiff-interface.c b/xdiff-interface.c
index 8bab82ed7f..f3f6db3297 100644
--- a/xdiff-interface.c
+++ b/xdiff-interface.c
@@ -191,12 +191,22 @@ struct ff_regs {
 static long ff_regexp(const char *line, long len,
 		char *buffer, long buffer_size, void *priv)
 {
-	char *line_buffer = xstrndup(line, len); /* make NUL terminated */
+	char *line_buffer;
 	struct ff_regs *regs = priv;
 	regmatch_t pmatch[2];
 	int i;
 	int result = -1;
 
+	/* Exclude terminating newline (and cr) from matching */
+	if (len > 0 && line[len-1] == '\n') {
+		if (len > 1 && line[len-2] == '\r')
+			len -= 2;
+		else
+			len--;
+	}
+
+	line_buffer = xstrndup(line, len); /* make NUL terminated */
+
 	for (i = 0; i < regs->nr; i++) {
 		struct ff_reg *reg = regs->array + i;
 		if (!regexec(&reg->re, line_buffer, 2, pmatch, 0)) {