diff --git a/doc/git-howto.txt b/doc/git-howto.txt
index 8b1fc14149..72cde72eed 100644
--- a/doc/git-howto.txt
+++ b/doc/git-howto.txt
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ I. BASICS:
 
   For cosmetics-only commits you should get (almost) empty output from
 
-    git diff -wb <filename(s)>
+    git diff -w -b <filename(s)>
 
   Also check the output of