diff --git a/range-diff.c b/range-diff.c
index f745567cf6..5cc920be39 100644
--- a/range-diff.c
+++ b/range-diff.c
@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ static int read_patches(const char *range, struct string_list *list,
 			"--output-indicator-old=<",
 			"--output-indicator-context=#",
 			"--no-abbrev-commit",
+			"--pretty=medium",
+			"--notes",
 			NULL);
 	if (other_arg)
 		argv_array_pushv(&cp.args, other_arg->argv);
@@ -106,6 +108,17 @@ static int read_patches(const char *range, struct string_list *list,
 			continue;
 		}
 
+		if (!util) {
+			error(_("could not parse first line of `log` output: "
+				"did not start with 'commit ': '%s'"),
+			      line);
+			string_list_clear(list, 1);
+			strbuf_release(&buf);
+			strbuf_release(&contents);
+			finish_command(&cp);
+			return -1;
+		}
+
 		if (starts_with(line, "diff --git")) {
 			struct patch patch = { 0 };
 			struct strbuf root = STRBUF_INIT;
diff --git a/t/t3206-range-diff.sh b/t/t3206-range-diff.sh
index bd808f87ed..e024cff65c 100755
--- a/t/t3206-range-diff.sh
+++ b/t/t3206-range-diff.sh
@@ -513,6 +513,16 @@ test_expect_success 'range-diff overrides diff.noprefix internally' '
 	git -c diff.noprefix=true range-diff HEAD^...
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'basic with modified format.pretty with suffix' '
+	git -c format.pretty="format:commit %H%d%n" range-diff \
+		master..topic master..unmodified
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'basic with modified format.pretty without "commit "' '
+	git -c format.pretty="format:%H%n" range-diff \
+		master..topic master..unmodified
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'range-diff compares notes by default' '
 	git notes add -m "topic note" topic &&
 	git notes add -m "unmodified note" unmodified &&