diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.http.server/src/org/eclipse/jgit/http/server/ReceivePackServlet.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.http.server/src/org/eclipse/jgit/http/server/ReceivePackServlet.java
index a85e84b21..bb4ae19e7 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.http.server/src/org/eclipse/jgit/http/server/ReceivePackServlet.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.http.server/src/org/eclipse/jgit/http/server/ReceivePackServlet.java
@@ -112,7 +112,12 @@ public void doPost(final HttpServletRequest req,
 			rp.setBiDirectionalPipe(false);
 			rsp.setContentType(RSP_TYPE);
 
-			final SmartOutputStream out = new SmartOutputStream(req, rsp);
+			final SmartOutputStream out = new SmartOutputStream(req, rsp) {
+				@Override
+				public void flush() throws IOException {
+					doFlush();
+				}
+			};
 			rp.receive(getInputStream(req), out, null);
 			out.close();
 
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/PacketLineOut.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/PacketLineOut.java
index 51506b20a..bb83dce48 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/PacketLineOut.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/PacketLineOut.java
@@ -65,6 +65,8 @@ public class PacketLineOut {
 
 	private final byte[] lenbuffer;
 
+	private boolean flushOnEnd;
+
 	/**
 	 * Create a new packet line writer.
 	 *
@@ -74,6 +76,18 @@ public class PacketLineOut {
 	public PacketLineOut(final OutputStream outputStream) {
 		out = outputStream;
 		lenbuffer = new byte[5];
+		flushOnEnd = true;
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Set the flush behavior during {@link #end()}.
+	 *
+	 * @param flushOnEnd
+	 *            if true, a flush-pkt written during {@link #end()} also
+	 *            flushes the underlying stream.
+	 */
+	public void setFlushOnEnd(boolean flushOnEnd) {
+		this.flushOnEnd = flushOnEnd;
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -121,7 +135,8 @@ public void writePacket(final byte[] packet) throws IOException {
 	public void end() throws IOException {
 		formatLength(0);
 		out.write(lenbuffer, 0, 4);
-		flush();
+		if (flushOnEnd)
+			flush();
 	}
 
 	/**
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/ReceivePack.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/ReceivePack.java
index 5ea850189..324e5604d 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/ReceivePack.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/ReceivePack.java
@@ -55,8 +55,6 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
-import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
-import java.io.Writer;
 import java.text.MessageFormat;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
@@ -70,7 +68,6 @@
 import org.eclipse.jgit.errors.PackProtocolException;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.errors.UnpackException;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.Config;
-import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.Config.SectionParser;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.Constants;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.NullProgressMonitor;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.ObjectId;
@@ -81,6 +78,7 @@
 import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.Ref;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.RefUpdate;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.Repository;
+import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.Config.SectionParser;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.revwalk.ObjectWalk;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.revwalk.RevBlob;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.revwalk.RevCommit;
@@ -157,14 +155,12 @@ public class ReceivePack {
 
 	private OutputStream rawOut;
 
+	private OutputStream msgOut;
+
 	private PacketLineIn pckIn;
 
 	private PacketLineOut pckOut;
 
-	private Writer msgs;
-
-	private SideBandOutputStream msgOut;
-
 	private PackParser parser;
 
 	/** The refs we advertised as existing at the start of the connection. */
@@ -508,8 +504,8 @@ public void sendError(final String what) {
 			advertiseError.append(what).append('\n');
 		} else {
 			try {
-				if (msgs != null)
-					msgs.write("error: " + what + "\n");
+				if (msgOut != null)
+					msgOut.write(Constants.encode("error: " + what + "\n"));
 			} catch (IOException e) {
 				// Ignore write failures.
 			}
@@ -528,8 +524,8 @@ public void sendError(final String what) {
 	 */
 	public void sendMessage(final String what) {
 		try {
-			if (msgs != null)
-				msgs.write(what + "\n");
+			if (msgOut != null)
+				msgOut.write(Constants.encode(what + "\n"));
 		} catch (IOException e) {
 			// Ignore write failures.
 		}
@@ -558,6 +554,7 @@ public void receive(final InputStream input, final OutputStream output,
 		try {
 			rawIn = input;
 			rawOut = output;
+			msgOut = messages;
 
 			if (timeout > 0) {
 				final Thread caller = Thread.currentThread();
@@ -572,8 +569,7 @@ public void receive(final InputStream input, final OutputStream output,
 
 			pckIn = new PacketLineIn(rawIn);
 			pckOut = new PacketLineOut(rawOut);
-			if (messages != null)
-				msgs = new OutputStreamWriter(messages, Constants.CHARSET);
+			pckOut.setFlushOnEnd(false);
 
 			enabledCapablities = new HashSet<String>();
 			commands = new ArrayList<ReceiveCommand>();
@@ -582,11 +578,6 @@ public void receive(final InputStream input, final OutputStream output,
 		} finally {
 			walk.release();
 			try {
-				if (pckOut != null)
-					pckOut.flush();
-				if (msgs != null)
-					msgs.flush();
-
 				if (sideBand) {
 					// If we are using side band, we need to send a final
 					// flush-pkt to tell the remote peer the side band is
@@ -594,16 +585,31 @@ public void receive(final InputStream input, final OutputStream output,
 					// use the original output stream as rawOut is now the
 					// side band data channel.
 					//
-					new PacketLineOut(output).end();
+					((SideBandOutputStream) msgOut).flushBuffer();
+					((SideBandOutputStream) rawOut).flushBuffer();
+
+					PacketLineOut plo = new PacketLineOut(output);
+					plo.setFlushOnEnd(false);
+					plo.end();
+				}
+
+				if (biDirectionalPipe) {
+					// If this was a native git connection, flush the pipe for
+					// the caller. For smart HTTP we don't do this flush and
+					// instead let the higher level HTTP servlet code do it.
+					//
+					if (!sideBand && msgOut != null)
+						msgOut.flush();
+					rawOut.flush();
 				}
 			} finally {
 				unlockPack();
 				timeoutIn = null;
 				rawIn = null;
 				rawOut = null;
+				msgOut = null;
 				pckIn = null;
 				pckOut = null;
-				msgs = null;
 				refs = null;
 				enabledCapablities = null;
 				commands = null;
@@ -619,9 +625,10 @@ public void receive(final InputStream input, final OutputStream output,
 	}
 
 	private void service() throws IOException {
-		if (biDirectionalPipe)
+		if (biDirectionalPipe) {
 			sendAdvertisedRefs(new PacketLineOutRefAdvertiser(pckOut));
-		else
+			pckOut.flush();
+		} else
 			refs = refFilter.filter(db.getAllRefs());
 		if (advertiseError != null)
 			return;
@@ -658,10 +665,10 @@ void sendString(final String s) throws IOException {
 					}
 				});
 				pckOut.end();
-			} else if (msgs != null) {
+			} else if (msgOut != null) {
 				sendStatusReport(false, new Reporter() {
 					void sendString(final String s) throws IOException {
-						msgs.write(s + "\n");
+						msgOut.write(Constants.encode(s + "\n"));
 					}
 				});
 			}
@@ -761,8 +768,9 @@ private void enableCapabilities() {
 
 			rawOut = new SideBandOutputStream(CH_DATA, MAX_BUF, out);
 			msgOut = new SideBandOutputStream(CH_PROGRESS, MAX_BUF, out);
+
 			pckOut = new PacketLineOut(rawOut);
-			msgs = new OutputStreamWriter(msgOut, Constants.CHARSET);
+			pckOut.setFlushOnEnd(false);
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/SideBandOutputStream.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/SideBandOutputStream.java
index 31acdcde5..8d9b3e005 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/SideBandOutputStream.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/SideBandOutputStream.java
@@ -109,10 +109,14 @@ else if (MAX_BUF < sz)
 		cnt = HDR_SIZE;
 	}
 
-	@Override
-	public void flush() throws IOException {
+	void flushBuffer() throws IOException {
 		if (HDR_SIZE < cnt)
 			writeBuffer();
+	}
+
+	@Override
+	public void flush() throws IOException {
+		flushBuffer();
 		out.flush();
 	}