@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@ General
 * Unified diff interface to allow easy diffing between trees, trees and index, trees
   and working tree, index and working tree, trees and index. This closely follows
   the git-diff capabilities.
+* Git.execute does not take the with_raw_output option anymore. It was not used 
+  by anyone within the project and False by default.
 
 
 Item Iteration
 
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 GIT_PYTHON_TRACE = os.environ.get("GIT_PYTHON_TRACE", False)
 
 execute_kwargs = ('istream', 'with_keep_cwd', 'with_extended_output',
-				  'with_exceptions', 'with_raw_output', 'as_process', 
+				  'with_exceptions', 'as_process', 
 				  'output_stream' )
 
 extra = {}
@@ -105,7 +105,6 @@ def execute(self, command,
 				with_keep_cwd=False,
 				with_extended_output=False,
 				with_exceptions=True,
-				with_raw_output=False,
 				as_process=False, 
 				output_stream=None
 				):
@@ -132,13 +131,10 @@ def execute(self, command,
 		``with_exceptions``
 			Whether to raise an exception when git returns a non-zero status.
 
-		``with_raw_output``
-			Whether to avoid stripping off trailing whitespace.
-			
 		``as_process``
 			Whether to return the created process instance directly from which 
-			streams can be read on demand. This will render with_extended_output, 
-			with_exceptions and with_raw_output ineffective - the caller will have 
+			streams can be read on demand. This will render with_extended_output and 
+			with_exceptions ineffective - the caller will have 
 			to deal with the details himself.
 			It is important to note that the process will be placed into an AutoInterrupt
 			wrapper that will interrupt the process once it goes out of scope. If you 
@@ -147,13 +143,21 @@ def execute(self, command,
 			
 		``output_stream``
 			If set to a file-like object, data produced by the git command will be 
-			output to the given stream directly. 
-			Otherwise a new file will be opened.
+			output to the given stream directly.
+			This feature only has any effect if as_process is False. Processes will
+			always be created with a pipe due to issues with subprocess.
+			This merely is a workaround as data will be copied from the 
+			output pipe to the given output stream directly.
+			
 		
 		Returns::
 		
-		 str(output)								  # extended_output = False (Default)
+		 str(output)								   # extended_output = False (Default)
 		 tuple(int(status), str(stdout), str(stderr)) # extended_output = True
+		 
+		 if ouput_stream is True, the stdout value will be your output stream:
+		 output_stream									# extended_output = False
+		 tuple(int(status), output_stream, str(stderr))# extended_output = True
 		
 		Raise
 			GitCommandError
@@ -171,16 +175,12 @@ def execute(self, command,
 		else:
 		  cwd=self.git_dir
 
-		ostream = subprocess.PIPE
-		if output_stream is not None:
-			ostream = output_stream
-
 		# Start the process
 		proc = subprocess.Popen(command,
 								cwd=cwd,
 								stdin=istream,
 								stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
-								stdout=ostream,
+								stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
 								**extra
 								)
 
@@ -190,18 +190,25 @@ def execute(self, command,
 		# Wait for the process to return
 		status = 0
 		try:
-			stdout_value = proc.stdout.read()
+			if output_stream is None:
+				stdout_value = proc.stdout.read()
+			else:
+				max_chunk_size = 1024*64
+				while True:
+					chunk = proc.stdout.read(max_chunk_size)
+					output_stream.write(chunk)
+					if len(chunk) < max_chunk_size:
+						break
+				# END reading output stream
+				stdout_value = output_stream
+			# END stdout handling
 			stderr_value = proc.stderr.read()
+			# waiting here should do nothing as we have finished stream reading
 			status = proc.wait()
 		finally:
 			proc.stdout.close()
 			proc.stderr.close()
 
-		# Strip off trailing whitespace by default
-		if not with_raw_output:
-			stdout_value = stdout_value.rstrip()
-			stderr_value = stderr_value.rstrip()
-
 		if with_exceptions and status != 0:
 			raise GitCommandError(command, status, stderr_value)
 
 
@@ -641,32 +641,23 @@ def archive(self, ostream, treeish=None, prefix=None,  **kwargs):
 
 		Examples::
 
-			>>> repo.archive(open("archive"
+			>>> repo.archive(open("archive"))
 			<String containing tar.gz archive>
 
-			>>> repo.archive_tar_gz('a87ff14')
-			<String containing tar.gz archive for commit a87ff14>
-
-			>>> repo.archive_tar_gz('master', 'myproject/')
-			<String containing tar.gz archive and prefixed with 'myproject/'>
-
 		Raise
 			GitCommandError in case something went wrong
 			
+		Returns
+			self
 		"""
 		if treeish is None:
 			treeish = self.active_branch
 		if prefix and 'prefix' not in kwargs:
 			kwargs['prefix'] = prefix
-		kwargs['as_process'] = True
 		kwargs['output_stream'] = ostream
 
-		proc =  self.git.archive(treeish, **kwargs)
-		status = proc.wait()
-		if status != 0:
-			raise GitCommandError( "git-archive", status, proc.stderr.read() )
-		
-
+		self.git.archive(treeish, **kwargs)
+		return self
 
 	def __repr__(self):
 		return '<git.Repo "%s">' % self.path
@@ -184,6 +184,11 @@ def test_head(self):
 	def test_tag(self):
 		assert self.repo.tag('0.1.5').commit
 
+	def test_archive(self):
+		tmpfile = os.tmpfile()
+		self.repo.archive(tmpfile, '0.1.5')
+		assert tmpfile.tell()
+		
 	@patch_object(Git, '_call_process')
 	def test_should_display_blame_information(self, git):
 		git.return_value = fixture('blame')