Thomas Haller [off-list ref] writes:
it happens in file revision.c:2306 because "commit->buffer" is zero:
retval = grep_buffer(&opt->grep_filter,
commit->buffer, strlen(commit->buffer));
I think this has been fixed at be5c9fb9049e (logmsg_reencode: lazily
load missing commit buffers, 2013-01-26); I haven't merged it to any
of the maintenance releases, but the tip of 'master' should have it
already.