diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 683cb4424..de96df643 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
-* 2.2.1 (2017-XX-XX)
+* 2.3.0 (2017-XX-XX)
 
+ * fixed a race condition handling when writing cache files
+ * "length" filter now returns string length when applied to an object that does
+   not implement \Countable but provides __toString()
+ * "empty" test will now consider the return value of the __toString() method for
+   objects implement __toString() but not \Countable
  * fixed JS escaping for unicode characters with higher code points
  * added error message when calling `parent()` in a block that doesn't exist in the parent template
 
@@ -34,8 +39,13 @@
  * improved the performance of the filesystem loader
  * removed features that were deprecated in 1.x
 
-* 1.32.1 (2017-XX-XX)
+* 1.33.0 (2017-XX-XX)
 
+ * fixed a race condition handling when writing cache files
+ * "length" filter now returns string length when applied to an object that does
+   not implement \Countable but provides __toString()
+ * "empty" test will now consider the return value of the __toString() method for
+   objects implement __toString() but not \Countable
  * fixed JS escaping for unicode characters with higher code points
 
 * 1.32.0 (2017-02-26)
diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index 10d081ef5..9b5d0bcc4 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@
     },
     "extra": {
         "branch-alias": {
-            "dev-master": "2.2-dev"
+            "dev-master": "2.3-dev"
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/doc/filters/length.rst b/doc/filters/length.rst
index 1f783b3dd..6f5a10711 100644
--- a/doc/filters/length.rst
+++ b/doc/filters/length.rst
@@ -1,8 +1,18 @@
 ``length``
 ==========
 
+.. versionadded:: 2.3
+
+    Support for the ``__toString()`` magic method has been added in Twig 2.3.
+
 The ``length`` filter returns the number of items of a sequence or mapping, or
-the length of a string:
+the length of a string.
+
+For objects that implement the ``Countable`` interface, ``length`` will use the
+return value of the ``count()`` method.
+
+For objects that implement the ``__toString()`` magic method (and not ``Countable``),
+it will return the length of the string provided by that method.
 
 .. code-block:: jinja
 
diff --git a/doc/tests/empty.rst b/doc/tests/empty.rst
index c214d50ae..1a5495707 100644
--- a/doc/tests/empty.rst
+++ b/doc/tests/empty.rst
@@ -1,11 +1,22 @@
 ``empty``
 =========
 
+.. versionadded:: 2.3
+
+    Support for the ``__toString()`` magic method has been added in Twig 2.3.
+
 ``empty`` checks if a variable is an empty string, an empty array, an empty
-hash, exactly ``false``, or exactly ``null``:
+hash, exactly ``false``, or exactly ``null``.
+
+For objects that implement the ``Countable`` interface, ``empty`` will check the
+return value of the ``count()`` method.
+
+For objects that implement the ``__toString()`` magic method (and not ``Countable``),
+it will check if an empty string is returned.
 
 .. code-block:: jinja
 
     {% if foo is empty %}
         ...
     {% endif %}
+
diff --git a/lib/Twig/Cache/Filesystem.php b/lib/Twig/Cache/Filesystem.php
index de4e50729..9230d7282 100644
--- a/lib/Twig/Cache/Filesystem.php
+++ b/lib/Twig/Cache/Filesystem.php
@@ -49,8 +49,11 @@ class Twig_Cache_Filesystem implements Twig_CacheInterface
     {
         $dir = dirname($key);
         if (!is_dir($dir)) {
-            if (false === @mkdir($dir, 0777, true) && !is_dir($dir)) {
-                throw new RuntimeException(sprintf('Unable to create the cache directory (%s).', $dir));
+            if (false === @mkdir($dir, 0777, true)) {
+                clearstatcache(true, $dir);
+                if (!is_dir($dir)) {
+                    throw new RuntimeException(sprintf('Unable to create the cache directory (%s).', $dir));
+                }
             }
         } elseif (!is_writable($dir)) {
             throw new RuntimeException(sprintf('Unable to write in the cache directory (%s).', $dir));
diff --git a/lib/Twig/Environment.php b/lib/Twig/Environment.php
index ad8f51db6..2fc4ac8df 100644
--- a/lib/Twig/Environment.php
+++ b/lib/Twig/Environment.php
@@ -16,11 +16,11 @@
  */
 class Twig_Environment
 {
-    const VERSION = '2.2.1';
-    const VERSION_ID = 20201;
+    const VERSION = '2.3.0';
+    const VERSION_ID = 20300;
     const MAJOR_VERSION = 2;
-    const MINOR_VERSION = 2;
-    const RELEASE_VERSION = 1;
+    const MINOR_VERSION = 3;
+    const RELEASE_VERSION = 0;
     const EXTRA_VERSION = 'DEV';
 
     private $charset;
diff --git a/lib/Twig/Extension/Core.php b/lib/Twig/Extension/Core.php
index e40ce3082..234c8c1c0 100644
--- a/lib/Twig/Extension/Core.php
+++ b/lib/Twig/Extension/Core.php
@@ -1144,7 +1144,15 @@ function twig_convert_encoding($string, $to, $from)
  */
 function twig_length_filter(Twig_Environment $env, $thing)
 {
-    return is_scalar($thing) ? mb_strlen($thing, $env->getCharset()) : count($thing);
+    if (is_scalar($thing)) {
+        return mb_strlen($thing, $env->getCharset());
+    }
+
+    if (method_exists($thing, '__toString') && !$thing instanceof \Countable) {
+        return mb_strlen((string) $thing, $env->getCharset());
+    }
+
+    return count($thing);
 }
 
 /**
@@ -1233,6 +1241,10 @@ function twig_test_empty($value)
         return 0 == count($value);
     }
 
+    if (method_exists($value, '__toString')) {
+        return '' === (string) $value;
+    }
+
     return '' === $value || false === $value || null === $value || array() === $value;
 }
 
diff --git a/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/filters/length.test b/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/filters/length.test
index 3347474d5..599c3fd52 100644
--- a/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/filters/length.test
+++ b/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/filters/length.test
@@ -4,11 +4,22 @@
 {{ array|length }}
 {{ string|length }}
 {{ number|length }}
-{{ markup|length }}
+{{ to_string_able|length }}
+{{ countable|length }}
+{{ magic|length }}
 --DATA--
-return array('array' => array(1, 4), 'string' => 'foo', 'number' => 1000, 'markup' => new Twig_Markup('foo', 'UTF-8'))
+return array(
+    'array' => array(1, 4),
+    'string' => 'foo',
+    'number' => 1000,
+    'to_string_able' => new ToStringStub('foobar'),
+    'countable' => new CountableStub(42),       /* also asserts we do *not* call __toString() */
+    'magic' => new MagicCallStub(),             /* used to assert we do *not* call __call */
+);
 --EXPECT--
 2
 3
 4
-3
+6
+42
+1
diff --git a/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/tests/empty.test b/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/tests/empty.test
index a776d032b..807c0ed4a 100644
--- a/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/tests/empty.test
+++ b/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/tests/empty.test
@@ -1,35 +1,28 @@
 --TEST--
 "empty" test
 --TEMPLATE--
-{{ foo is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
-{{ bar is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
-{{ foobar is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
-{{ array is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
-{{ zero is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
-{{ string is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
+{{ string_empty is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
+{{ string_zero is empty ? 'ko' : 'ok' }}
+{{ value_null is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
+{{ value_false is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
+{{ value_int_zero is empty ? 'ko' : 'ok' }}
+{{ array_empty is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
+{{ array_not_empty is empty ? 'ko' : 'ok' }}
+{{ magically_callable is empty ? 'ko' : 'ok' }}
 {{ countable_empty is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
-{{ countable_not_empty is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
+{{ countable_not_empty is empty ? 'ko' : 'ok' }}
+{{ tostring_empty is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
+{{ tostring_not_empty is empty ? 'ko' : 'ok' }}
 {{ markup_empty is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
-{{ markup_not_empty is empty ? 'ok' : 'ko' }}
+{{ markup_not_empty is empty ? 'ko' : 'ok' }}
 --DATA--
-
-class CountableStub implements Countable
-{
-    private $items;
-
-    public function __construct(array $items)
-    {
-        $this->items = $items;
-    }
-
-    public function count()
-    {
-        return count($this->items);
-    }
-}
 return array(
-    'foo' => '', 'bar' => null, 'foobar' => false, 'array' => array(), 'zero' => 0, 'string' => '0',
+    'string_empty' => '', 'string_zero' => '0',
+    'value_null' => null, 'value_false' => false, 'value_int_zero' => 0,
+    'array_empty' => array(), 'array_not_empty' => array(1, 2),
+    'magically_callable' => new MagicCallStub(),
     'countable_empty' => new CountableStub(array()), 'countable_not_empty' => new CountableStub(array(1, 2)),
+    'tostring_empty' => new ToStringStub(''), 'tostring_not_empty' => new ToStringStub('0' /* edge case of using "0" as the string */),
     'markup_empty' => new Twig_Markup('', 'UTF-8'), 'markup_not_empty' => new Twig_Markup('test', 'UTF-8'),
 );
 --EXPECT--
@@ -37,9 +30,13 @@ ok
 ok
 ok
 ok
-ko
-ko
 ok
-ko
 ok
-ko
+ok
+ok
+ok
+ok
+ok
+ok
+ok
+ok
diff --git a/test/Twig/Tests/IntegrationTest.php b/test/Twig/Tests/IntegrationTest.php
index ffede5f59..812449117 100644
--- a/test/Twig/Tests/IntegrationTest.php
+++ b/test/Twig/Tests/IntegrationTest.php
@@ -254,3 +254,58 @@ class TwigTestExtension extends Twig_Extension
         return 'static_magic_'.$arguments[0];
     }
 }
+
+/**
+ * This class is used in tests for the "length" filter and "empty" test. It asserts that __call is not
+ * used to convert such objects to strings.
+ */
+class MagicCallStub
+{
+    public function __call($name, $args)
+    {
+        throw new Exception('__call shall not be called');
+    }
+}
+
+class ToStringStub
+{
+    /**
+     * @var string
+     */
+    private $string;
+
+    public function __construct($string)
+    {
+        $this->string = $string;
+    }
+
+    public function __toString()
+    {
+        return $this->string;
+    }
+}
+
+/**
+ * This class is used in tests for the length filter and empty test to show
+ * that when \Countable is implemented, it is preferred over the __toString()
+ * method.
+ */
+class CountableStub implements \Countable
+{
+    private $count;
+
+    public function __construct($count)
+    {
+        $this->count = $count;
+    }
+
+    public function count()
+    {
+        return $this->count;
+    }
+
+    public function __toString()
+    {
+        throw new Exception('__toString shall not be called on \Countables');
+    }
+}