git meta operations on an empty repo fails

> $ git init .
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/edy/meta/.git/
$ git meta status
AssertionError: expected null to be a string
at Function.assert.isString (<>/node_modules/chai/lib/chai/interface/assert.js:632:35)
at Object.exports.shortSha (<>/lib/util/git_util.js:427:12)
at Object.exports.printCurrentBranch (<>/lib/util/print_status_util.js:363:39)
at Object.exports.printRepoStatus (<>/lib/util/print_status_util.js:384:23)
at Object. (<>/lib/cmd/status.js:106:34)
at next (native)
at onFulfilled (<>/node_modules/co/index.js:65:19)