diff --git a/commit-patch b/commit-patch
index 9330ddf..b06907e 100755
--- a/commit-patch
+++ b/commit-patch
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@ while (!$vc{name}) {
         $vc{name}         = 'cvs';
         $vc{diff}         = 'cvs diff -u';
         $vc{commit}       = 'cvs commit';
-        $vc{message_opt}  = $message          ? ['-m', $message] :
-                            $message_filename ? ['-F', $message_filename] : [];
+        $vc{message}      = sub { ('-m', $_[0]) };
+        $vc{message_file} = sub { ('-F', $_[0]) };
         $vc{add}          = 'cvs add';
         $vc{remove}       = 'cvs rm';
         $vc{patcharg}     = '-p0';
@@ -59,22 +59,24 @@ while (!$vc{name}) {
         $vc{commit}       = 'darcs record --all';
         $vc{patcharg}     = '-p1';
         $vc{lsdiffarg}    = [qw(--strip 1)];
-        if ($message) {
+        $vc{message}      = sub {
             # Darcs doesn't like multiline -m comments so we have to put the log message into a file and use --logfile. Yuck.
-            #$vc{message_opt} = '-m';
+            #return ('-m', $_[0]);
+            my $message = $_[0];
             $message .= "\n" unless $message =~ /\n$/s; # Darcs does screwey stuff when logfile has no trailing \n.
-            (my $message_file, $message_filename) = tempfile("commit-patch-message-XXXXXXXX", UNLINK=>0);
+            my ($message_file, $message_filename) = tempfile("commit-patch-message-XXXXXXXX", UNLINK=>0);
             print $message_file $message;
             close $message_file;
             $clean{$message_filename} = undef; # make sure we delete this file on exit.
-        }
-        $vc{message_opt}  = $message_filename ? ["--logfile=$message_filename"] : [];
+            ("--logfile=$message_filename");
+        };
+        $vc{message_file} = sub { ("--logfile=$_[0]" ) };
     } elsif (-d "$repo/.hg") {
         $vc{name}         = 'hg';
         $vc{diff}         = 'hg diff';
         $vc{commit}       = 'hg commit';
-        $vc{message_opt}  = $message          ? ['-m', $message] :
-                            $message_filename ? ['--logfile', $message_filename] : [];
+        $vc{message}      = sub { ('-m', $_[0]) };
+        $vc{message_file} = sub { ('--logfile', $_[0]) };
         $vc{add}          = 'hg addremove';
         $vc{remove}       = 'true';
         $vc{patcharg}     = '-p1';
@@ -111,7 +113,9 @@ eval {
     run(["patch", $vc{patcharg}, "-R"], '<', "working.patch.$$",                        '>', \$out, '2>', \$err) or die "$out\n$err\n";
     run(["patch", $vc{patcharg}], '<', $patch,                                          '>', \$out, '2>', \$err) or die "$out\n$err\n";
     # Don't capture stdout or stderr because it can be interactive (cough cough darcs)
-    run([split(/ /,$vc{commit}), @{$vc{message_opt}},                                        @files],debug => 0) or die "commit failed.\n";
+    my @message_opt = $message          ? $vc{message}->($message) :
+                      $message_filename ? $vc{message_file}->($message_filename) : ();
+    run([split(/ /,$vc{commit}), @message_opt,                                               @files],debug => 0) or die "commit failed.\n";
     run(["patch", $vc{patcharg}], '<', "non_committed.patch.$$",                        '>', \$out, '2>', \$err) or die "$out\n$err\n";
 };
 sub clean() {