diff --git a/mercurial/commands.py b/mercurial/commands.py
--- a/mercurial/commands.py
+++ b/mercurial/commands.py
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ def commit(ui, repo, *files, **opts):
         try: text = open(opts['logfile']).read()
         except IOError: pass
 
-    repo.commit(relpath(repo, files), text)
+    repo.commit(relpath(repo, files), text, opts['user'], opts['date'])
 
 def debugaddchangegroup(ui, repo):
     data = sys.stdin.read()
@@ -524,7 +524,9 @@ table = {
     "cat|dump": (cat, [], 'hg cat <file> [rev]'),
     "commit|ci": (commit,
                   [('t', 'text', "", 'commit text'),
-                   ('l', 'logfile', "", 'commit text file')],
+                   ('l', 'logfile', "", 'commit text file'),
+                   ('d', 'date', "", 'data'),
+                   ('u', 'user', "", 'user')],
                   'hg commit [files]'),
     "debugaddchangegroup": (debugaddchangegroup, [], 'debugaddchangegroup'),
     "debugchangegroup": (debugchangegroup, [], 'debugchangegroup [roots]'),
diff --git a/mercurial/hg.py b/mercurial/hg.py
--- a/mercurial/hg.py
+++ b/mercurial/hg.py
@@ -462,7 +462,7 @@ class localrepository:
         n = self.changelog.add(mnode, files, text, tr, p1, p2, user, date)
         tr.close()
 
-    def commit(self, files = None, text = ""):
+    def commit(self, files = None, text = "", user = None, date = None):
         commit = []
         remove = []
         if files:
@@ -529,7 +529,7 @@ class localrepository:
                 return 1
             text = edittext
 
-        n = self.changelog.add(mn, new, text, tr, p1, p2)
+        n = self.changelog.add(mn, new, text, tr, p1, p2, user, date)
         tr.close()
 
         self.dirstate.setparents(n)
diff --git a/mercurial/mdiff.py b/mercurial/mdiff.py
--- a/mercurial/mdiff.py
+++ b/mercurial/mdiff.py
@@ -67,7 +67,11 @@ def diff(a, b, sorted=0):
     for i in a: p.append(p[-1] + len(i))
 
     if sorted:
-        d = sortdiff(a, b)
+        try:
+            d = sortdiff(a, b)
+        except:
+            print a, b
+            raise
     else:
         d = difflib.SequenceMatcher(None, a, b).get_matching_blocks()
     la = 0