diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/fnmatch/CharacterHead.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/fnmatch/CharacterHead.java
index 699eca968..6211b246f 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/fnmatch/CharacterHead.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/fnmatch/CharacterHead.java
@@ -57,4 +57,9 @@ protected final boolean matches(final char c) {
 		return c == expectedCharacter;
 	}
 
+	@Override
+	public String toString() {
+		return String.valueOf(expectedCharacter);
+	}
+
 }
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/fnmatch/RestrictedWildCardHead.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/fnmatch/RestrictedWildCardHead.java
index 6d527d2b2..4a0a03df2 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/fnmatch/RestrictedWildCardHead.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/fnmatch/RestrictedWildCardHead.java
@@ -56,4 +56,9 @@ final class RestrictedWildCardHead extends AbstractHead {
 	protected final boolean matches(final char c) {
 		return c != excludedCharacter;
 	}
+
+	@Override
+	public String toString() {
+		return isStar() ? "*" : "?"; //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
+	}
 }
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/IgnoreRule.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/IgnoreRule.java
index 980f2094b..fd095d76d 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/IgnoreRule.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/IgnoreRule.java
@@ -255,4 +255,9 @@ private boolean doesMatchDirectoryExpectations(boolean isDirectory, int segmentI
 		// We are checking the last part of the segment for which isDirectory has to be considered.
 		return !dirOnly || isDirectory;
 	}
+
+	@Override
+	public String toString() {
+		return pattern;
+	}
 }
\ No newline at end of file