diff --git a/mercurial/commands.py b/mercurial/commands.py
--- a/mercurial/commands.py
+++ b/mercurial/commands.py
@@ -1592,7 +1592,9 @@
         node = cmdutil.amend(ui, repo, old, extra, pats, opts)
         if node == old.node():
             ui.status(_("nothing changed\n"))
-            return 1
+            # Returning 0 because this is not technically an error condition,
+            # and it makes some scripts a little easier to write.
+            return 0
     else:
         def commitfunc(ui, repo, message, match, opts):
             overrides = {}
@@ -1622,6 +1624,9 @@
                             "'hg status')\n") % len(stat[3]))
             else:
                 ui.status(_("nothing changed\n"))
+            # "amend" not doing something in a script might be expected;
+            # "commit" not doing something in a script is generally a bug
+            # somewhere, so we return non-zero here.
             return 1
 
     cmdutil.commitstatus(repo, node, branch, bheads, opts)
diff --git a/tests/test-amend.t b/tests/test-amend.t
--- a/tests/test-amend.t
+++ b/tests/test-amend.t
@@ -83,15 +83,12 @@
 
   $ hg amend
   nothing changed
-  [1]
 
   $ hg amend -d "0 0"
   nothing changed
-  [1]
 
   $ hg amend -d "Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 UTC"
   nothing changed
-  [1]
 
 Matcher and metadata options
 
diff --git a/tests/test-commit-amend.t b/tests/test-commit-amend.t
--- a/tests/test-commit-amend.t
+++ b/tests/test-commit-amend.t
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@
 
   $ hg ci --amend -m 'base1'
   nothing changed
-  [1]
 
   $ cat >> $HGRCPATH <<EOF
   > [hooks]