It's apples and oranges, but I had no problem on
$ git --version
git version 1.5.4.3
$ uname -a
Linux platte 2.6.24-24-generic #1 SMP Wed Apr 15 15:11:35 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
or
$ /usr/src/git/git --version
git version 1.6.3.2.31.g7af0
$ git clone git://repo.or.cz/egit.git
$ cd egit
$ git diff v0.4.0 | wc -l
47943
$ /usr/src/git/git diff v0.4.0 | wc -l
47943
Jeff