diff --git a/Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt b/Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt
index d1e93dbb372624d68fa96eb8bed141f1e76f0308..009ec5ab374ef36426d9db32ef31b028a403ed6a 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ git-pack-objects - Create a packed archive of objects.
 
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
-'git-pack-objects' [--local] [--incremental] [--window=N] [--depth=N] {--stdout | base-name} < object-list
+'git-pack-objects' [--non-empty] [--local] [--incremental] [--window=N] [--depth=N] {--stdout | base-name} < object-list
 
 
 DESCRIPTION
@@ -70,6 +70,10 @@ base-name::
 	that are packed and not in the local object store
 	(i.e. borrowed from an alternate).
 
+--non-empty::
+        Only create a packed archive if it would contain at
+        least one object.
+
 Author
 ------
 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
diff --git a/pack-objects.c b/pack-objects.c
index a62c9f8d185aabb9a719397ce6daeeaa61f6ce58..caf3b6be5a1cf85bafd034ed9e2cbe3cd596b26c 100644
--- a/pack-objects.c
+++ b/pack-objects.c
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 #include "pack.h"
 #include "csum-file.h"
 
-static const char pack_usage[] = "git-pack-objects [--local] [--incremental] [--window=N] [--depth=N] {--stdout | base-name} < object-list";
+static const char pack_usage[] = "git-pack-objects [--non-empty] [--local] [--incremental] [--window=N] [--depth=N] {--stdout | base-name} < object-list";
 
 struct object_entry {
 	unsigned char sha1[20];