diff --git a/git-fmt-merge-msg.perl b/git-fmt-merge-msg.perl
index 616bb521cb..c34ddc5d5e 100755
--- a/git-fmt-merge-msg.perl
+++ b/git-fmt-merge-msg.perl
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ sub current_branch {
 	my $fh;
 	open $fh, '-|', 'git-symbolic-ref', 'HEAD' or die "$!";
 	my ($bra) = <$fh>;
+	chomp($bra);
 	$bra =~ s|^refs/heads/||;
 	if ($bra ne 'master') {
 		$bra = " into $bra";