diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.4.3.txt b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.4.3.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..03f3d17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.4.3.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+Git v1.8.4.3 Release Notes
+========================
+
+Fixes since v1.8.4.2
+--------------------
+
+ * The interaction between use of Perl in our test suite and NO_PERL
+   has been clarified a bit.
+
+ * A fast-import stream expresses a pathname with funny characters by
+   quoting them in C style; remote-hg remote helper (in contrib/)
+   forgot to unquote such a path.
+
+ * One long-standing flaw in the pack transfer protocol used by "git
+   clone" was that there was no way to tell the other end which branch
+   "HEAD" points at, and the receiving end needed to guess.  A new
+   capability has been defined in the pack protocol to convey this
+   information so that cloning from a repository with more than one
+   branches pointing at the same commit where the HEAD is at now
+   reliably sets the initial branch in the resulting repository.
+
+ * We did not handle cases where http transport gets redirected during
+   the authorization request (e.g. from http:// to https://).
+
+ * "git rev-list --objects ^v1.0^ v1.0" gave v1.0 tag itself in the
+   output, but "git rev-list --objects v1.0^..v1.0" did not.
+
+ * The fall-back parsing of commit objects with broken author or
+   committer lines were less robust than ideal in picking up the
+   timestamps.
+
+ * Bash prompting code to deal with an SVN remote as an upstream
+   were coded in a way not supported by older Bash versions (3.x).
+
+ * "git checkout topic", when there is not yet a local "topic" branch
+   but there is a unique remote-tracking branch for a remote "topic"
+   branch, pretended as if "git checkout -t -b topic remote/$r/topic"
+   (for that unique remote $r) was run. This hack however was not
+   implemented for "git checkout topic --".
+
+ * Coloring around octopus merges in "log --graph" output was screwy.
+
+ * We did not generate HTML version of documentation to "git subtree"
+   in contrib/.
+
+ * The synopsis section of "git unpack-objects" documentation has been
+   clarified a bit.
+
+ * An ancient How-To on serving Git repositories on an HTTP server
+   lacked a warning that it has been mostly superseded with more
+   modern way.
+
+Also contains a handful of trivial code clean-ups, documentation
+updates, updates to the test suite, etc.
diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.5.txt b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.5.txt
index 797e67b..13b4336 100644
--- a/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.5.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.5.txt
@@ -248,6 +248,23 @@
 track are contained in this release (see release notes to them for
 details).
 
+ * An ancient How-To on serving Git repositories on an HTTP server
+   lacked a warning that it has been mostly superseded with more
+   modern way.
+   (merge 6d52bc3 sc/doc-howto-dumb-http later to maint).
+
+ * The interaction between use of Perl in our test suite and NO_PERL
+   has been clarified a bit.
+   (merge f8fc0ee jn/test-prereq-perl-doc later to maint).
+
+ * The synopsis section of "git unpack-objects" documentation has been
+   clarified a bit.
+   (merge 61e2e22 vd/doc-unpack-objects later to maint).
+
+ * We did not generate HTML version of documentation to "git subtree"
+   in contrib/.
+   (merge 95c62fb jk/subtree-install-fix later to maint).
+
  * A fast-import stream expresses a pathname with funny characters by
    quoting them in C style; remote-hg remote helper forgot to unquote
    such a path.
diff --git a/Documentation/date-formats.txt b/Documentation/date-formats.txt
index c000f08..ccd1fc8 100644
--- a/Documentation/date-formats.txt
+++ b/Documentation/date-formats.txt
@@ -8,9 +8,9 @@
 support the following date formats:
 
 Git internal format::
-	It is `<unix timestamp> <timezone offset>`, where `<unix
+	It is `<unix timestamp> <time zone offset>`, where `<unix
 	timestamp>` is the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch.
-	`<timezone offset>` is a positive or negative offset from UTC.
+	`<time zone offset>` is a positive or negative offset from UTC.
 	For example CET (which is 2 hours ahead UTC) is `+0200`.
 
 RFC 2822::
diff --git a/Documentation/git-blame.txt b/Documentation/git-blame.txt
index f2c85cc..8e70a61 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-blame.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-blame.txt
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@
 at least once for each commit:
 
 - the author name ("author"), email ("author-mail"), time
-  ("author-time"), and timezone ("author-tz"); similarly
+  ("author-time"), and time zone ("author-tz"); similarly
   for committer.
 - the filename in the commit that the line is attributed to.
 - the first line of the commit log message ("summary").
diff --git a/Documentation/git-cvsimport.txt b/Documentation/git-cvsimport.txt
index d1bcda2..2df9953 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-cvsimport.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-cvsimport.txt
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@
 	CVS by default uses the Unix username when writing its
 	commit logs. Using this option and an author-conv-file
 	maps the name recorded in CVS to author name, e-mail and
-	optional timezone:
+	optional time zone:
 +
 ---------
 	exon=Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se>
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@
 +
 'git cvsimport' will make it appear as those authors had
 their GIT_AUTHOR_NAME and GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL set properly
-all along.  If a timezone is specified, GIT_AUTHOR_DATE will
+all along.  If a time zone is specified, GIT_AUTHOR_DATE will
 have the corresponding offset applied.
 +
 For convenience, this data is saved to `$GIT_DIR/cvs-authors`
diff --git a/Documentation/git-fast-import.txt b/Documentation/git-fast-import.txt
index 73f9806..fd22a9a 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-fast-import.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-fast-import.txt
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@
 If the local offset is not available in the source material, use
 ``+0000'', or the most common local offset.  For example many
 organizations have a CVS repository which has only ever been accessed
-by users who are located in the same location and timezone.  In this
+by users who are located in the same location and time zone.  In this
 case a reasonable offset from UTC could be assumed.
 +
 Unlike the `rfc2822` format, this format is very strict.  Any
@@ -271,7 +271,7 @@
 strings which Git will parse wrong, and yet consider valid.
 Seriously malformed strings will be rejected.
 +
-Unlike the `raw` format above, the timezone/UTC offset information
+Unlike the `raw` format above, the time zone/UTC offset information
 contained in an RFC 2822 date string is used to adjust the date
 value to UTC prior to storage.  Therefore it is important that
 this information be as accurate as possible.
@@ -287,13 +287,13 @@
 ambiguity in parsing.
 
 `now`::
-	Always use the current time and timezone.  The literal
+	Always use the current time and time zone.  The literal
 	`now` must always be supplied for `<when>`.
 +
-This is a toy format.  The current time and timezone of this system
+This is a toy format.  The current time and time zone of this system
 is always copied into the identity string at the time it is being
 created by fast-import.  There is no way to specify a different time or
-timezone.
+time zone.
 +
 This particular format is supplied as it's short to implement and
 may be useful to a process that wants to create a new commit
diff --git a/Documentation/git-pull.txt b/Documentation/git-pull.txt
index beea10b..6083aab 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-pull.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-pull.txt
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@
 	  A---B---C master on origin
 	 /
     D---E---F---G master
+	^
+	origin/master in your repository
 ------------
 
 Then "`git pull`" will fetch and replay the changes from the remote
@@ -51,7 +53,7 @@
 and a log message from the user describing the changes.
 
 ------------
-	  A---B---C remotes/origin/master
+	  A---B---C origin/master
 	 /         \
     D---E---F---G---H master
 ------------
diff --git a/Documentation/git-svn.txt b/Documentation/git-svn.txt
index dcad890..30c5ee2 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-svn.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-svn.txt
@@ -124,15 +124,15 @@
 '$GIT_DIR/svn/\*\*/.rev_map.*' in the FILES section below for details).
 
 --localtime;;
-	Store Git commit times in the local timezone instead of UTC.  This
+	Store Git commit times in the local time zone instead of UTC.  This
 	makes 'git log' (even without --date=local) show the same times
-	that `svn log` would in the local timezone.
+	that `svn log` would in the local time zone.
 +
 This doesn't interfere with interoperating with the Subversion
 repository you cloned from, but if you wish for your local Git
 repository to be able to interoperate with someone else's local Git
 repository, either don't use this option or you should both use it in
-the same local timezone.
+the same local time zone.
 
 --parent;;
 	Fetch only from the SVN parent of the current HEAD.
diff --git a/Documentation/git-unpack-objects.txt b/Documentation/git-unpack-objects.txt
index ff23494..12cb108 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-unpack-objects.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-unpack-objects.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git unpack-objects' [-n] [-q] [-r] [--strict] <pack-file
+'git unpack-objects' [-n] [-q] [-r] [--strict] < <pack-file>
 
 
 DESCRIPTION
diff --git a/Documentation/git.txt b/Documentation/git.txt
index 824a179..10cddb5 100644
--- a/Documentation/git.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git.txt
@@ -43,9 +43,10 @@
 branch of the `git.git` repository.
 Documentation for older releases are available here:
 
-* link:v1.8.4.2/git.html[documentation for release 1.8.4.2]
+* link:v1.8.4.3/git.html[documentation for release 1.8.4.3]
 
 * release notes for
+  link:RelNotes/1.8.4.3.txt[1.8.4.3],
   link:RelNotes/1.8.4.2.txt[1.8.4.2],
   link:RelNotes/1.8.4.1.txt[1.8.4.1],
   link:RelNotes/1.8.4.txt[1.8.4].
diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
index 54e334e..f971960 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitignore.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
@@ -113,12 +113,12 @@
 
  - A leading "`**`" followed by a slash means match in all
    directories. For example, "`**/foo`" matches file or directory
-   "`foo`" anywhere, the same as pattern "`foo`". "**/foo/bar"
+   "`foo`" anywhere, the same as pattern "`foo`". "`**/foo/bar`"
    matches file or directory "`bar`" anywhere that is directly
    under directory "`foo`".
 
- - A trailing "/**" matches everything inside. For example,
-   "abc/**" matches all files inside directory "abc", relative
+ - A trailing "`/**`" matches everything inside. For example,
+   "`abc/**`" matches all files inside directory "`abc`", relative
    to the location of the `.gitignore` file, with infinite depth.
 
  - A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash
diff --git a/Documentation/gitweb.conf.txt b/Documentation/gitweb.conf.txt
index 305db63..e2113d9 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitweb.conf.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitweb.conf.txt
@@ -822,18 +822,18 @@
 Project specific override is not supported.
 
 javascript-timezone::
-	Enable and configure the ability to change a common timezone for dates
+	Enable and configure the ability to change a common time zone for dates
 	in gitweb output via JavaScript.  Dates in gitweb output include
 	authordate and committerdate in "commit", "commitdiff" and "log"
 	views, and taggerdate in "tag" view.  Enabled by default.
 +
-The value is a list of three values: a default timezone (for if the client
-hasn't selected some other timezone and saved it in a cookie), a name of cookie
-where to store selected timezone, and a CSS class used to mark up
+The value is a list of three values: a default time zone (for if the client
+hasn't selected some other time zone and saved it in a cookie), a name of cookie
+where to store selected time zone, and a CSS class used to mark up
 dates for manipulation.  If you want to turn this feature off, set "default"
 to empty list: `[]`.
 +
-Typical gitweb config files will only change starting (default) timezone,
+Typical gitweb config files will only change starting (default) time zone,
 and leave other elements at their default values:
 +
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -843,9 +843,9 @@
 The example configuration presented here is guaranteed to be backwards
 and forward compatible.
 +
-Timezone values can be "local" (for local timezone that browser uses), "utc"
+Time zone values can be "local" (for local time zone that browser uses), "utc"
 (what gitweb uses when JavaScript or this feature is disabled), or numerical
-timezones in the form of "+/-HHMM", such as "+0200".
+time zones in the form of "+/-HHMM", such as "+0200".
 +
 Project specific override is not supported.
 
diff --git a/Documentation/howto/setup-git-server-over-http.txt b/Documentation/howto/setup-git-server-over-http.txt
index 981cbdd..6de4f3c 100644
--- a/Documentation/howto/setup-git-server-over-http.txt
+++ b/Documentation/howto/setup-git-server-over-http.txt
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@
 How to setup Git server over http
 =================================
 
+NOTE: This document is from 2006.  A lot has happened since then, and this
+document is now relevant mainly if your web host is not CGI capable.
+Almost everyone else should instead look at linkgit:git-http-backend[1].
+
 Since Apache is one of those packages people like to compile
 themselves while others prefer the bureaucrat's dream Debian, it is
 impossible to give guidelines which will work for everyone. Just send
diff --git a/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt b/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt
index 5bdfb42..ec86d09 100644
--- a/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt
+++ b/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt
@@ -720,7 +720,7 @@
 `--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time,
 e.g. "2 hours ago".
 +
-`--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local timezone.
+`--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local time zone.
 +
 `--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format.
 +
@@ -731,7 +731,7 @@
 +
 `--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw Git format `%s %z` format.
 +
-`--date=default` shows timestamps in the original timezone
+`--date=default` shows timestamps in the original time zone
 (either committer's or author's).
 
 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
diff --git a/GIT-VERSION-GEN b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
index 4dcaac3..366705c 100755
--- a/GIT-VERSION-GEN
+++ b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
 GVF=GIT-VERSION-FILE
-DEF_VER=v1.8.5-rc0
+DEF_VER=v1.8.5-rc1
 
 LF='
 '
diff --git a/builtin/branch.c b/builtin/branch.c
index ad0f86d..5696cf0 100644
--- a/builtin/branch.c
+++ b/builtin/branch.c
@@ -975,9 +975,8 @@
 			die(_("no such branch '%s'"), argv[0]);
 		}
 
-		if (!branch_has_merge_config(branch)) {
+		if (!branch_has_merge_config(branch))
 			die(_("Branch '%s' has no upstream information"), branch->name);
-		}
 
 		strbuf_addf(&buf, "branch.%s.remote", branch->name);
 		git_config_set_multivar(buf.buf, NULL, NULL, 1);
diff --git a/builtin/describe.c b/builtin/describe.c
index b9d3603..6f62109 100644
--- a/builtin/describe.c
+++ b/builtin/describe.c
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 #include "hash.h"
 #include "argv-array.h"
 
-#define SEEN		(1u<<0)
+#define SEEN		(1u << 0)
 #define MAX_TAGS	(FLAG_BITS - 1)
 
 static const char * const describe_usage[] = {
@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@
 	"diff-index", "--quiet", "HEAD", "--", NULL
 };
 
-
 struct commit_name {
 	struct commit_name *next;
 	unsigned char peeled[20];
@@ -46,6 +45,7 @@
 	unsigned char sha1[20];
 	char *path;
 };
+
 static const char *prio_names[] = {
 	"head", "lightweight", "annotated",
 };
@@ -488,9 +488,8 @@
 	} else if (dirty) {
 		die(_("--dirty is incompatible with commit-ishes"));
 	} else {
-		while (argc-- > 0) {
+		while (argc-- > 0)
 			describe(*argv++, argc == 0);
-		}
 	}
 	return 0;
 }
diff --git a/builtin/diff.c b/builtin/diff.c
index 2fb8c5d..adb93a9 100644
--- a/builtin/diff.c
+++ b/builtin/diff.c
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@
 	if (ent1->item->flags & UNINTERESTING)
 		swap = 1;
 	sha1[swap] = ent0->item->sha1;
-	sha1[1-swap] = ent1->item->sha1;
+	sha1[1 - swap] = ent1->item->sha1;
 	diff_tree_sha1(sha1[0], sha1[1], "", &revs->diffopt);
 	log_tree_diff_flush(revs);
 	return 0;
diff --git a/builtin/merge.c b/builtin/merge.c
index 02a69c1..41fb66d 100644
--- a/builtin/merge.c
+++ b/builtin/merge.c
@@ -186,13 +186,6 @@
 	return 0;
 }
 
-static int option_parse_ff_only(const struct option *opt,
-			  const char *arg, int unset)
-{
-	fast_forward = FF_ONLY;
-	return 0;
-}
-
 static struct option builtin_merge_options[] = {
 	{ OPTION_CALLBACK, 'n', NULL, NULL, NULL,
 		N_("do not show a diffstat at the end of the merge"),
@@ -210,9 +203,9 @@
 	OPT_BOOL('e', "edit", &option_edit,
 		N_("edit message before committing")),
 	OPT_SET_INT(0, "ff", &fast_forward, N_("allow fast-forward (default)"), FF_ALLOW),
-	{ OPTION_CALLBACK, 0, "ff-only", NULL, NULL,
+	{ OPTION_SET_INT, 0, "ff-only", &fast_forward, NULL,
 		N_("abort if fast-forward is not possible"),
-		PARSE_OPT_NOARG | PARSE_OPT_NONEG, option_parse_ff_only },
+		PARSE_OPT_NOARG | PARSE_OPT_NONEG, NULL, FF_ONLY },
 	OPT_RERERE_AUTOUPDATE(&allow_rerere_auto),
 	OPT_BOOL(0, "verify-signatures", &verify_signatures,
 		N_("Verify that the named commit has a valid GPG signature")),
diff --git a/contrib/subtree/Makefile b/contrib/subtree/Makefile
index 435b2de..4030a16 100644
--- a/contrib/subtree/Makefile
+++ b/contrib/subtree/Makefile
@@ -21,13 +21,14 @@
 GIT_SUBTREE_DOC := git-subtree.1
 GIT_SUBTREE_XML := git-subtree.xml
 GIT_SUBTREE_TXT := git-subtree.txt
+GIT_SUBTREE_HTML := git-subtree.html
 
 all: $(GIT_SUBTREE)
 
 $(GIT_SUBTREE): $(GIT_SUBTREE_SH)
 	cp $< $@ && chmod +x $@
 
-doc: $(GIT_SUBTREE_DOC)
+doc: $(GIT_SUBTREE_DOC) $(GIT_SUBTREE_HTML)
 
 install: $(GIT_SUBTREE)
 	$(INSTALL) -d -m 755 $(DESTDIR)$(libexecdir)
@@ -46,6 +47,10 @@
 	asciidoc -b docbook -d manpage -f $(ASCIIDOC_CONF) \
 		-agit_version=$(gitver) $^
 
+$(GIT_SUBTREE_HTML): $(GIT_SUBTREE_TXT)
+	asciidoc -b xhtml11 -d manpage -f $(ASCIIDOC_CONF) \
+		-agit_version=$(gitver) $^
+
 test:
 	$(MAKE) -C t/ test
 
diff --git a/git-cvsserver.perl b/git-cvsserver.perl
index 74d1cc7..95e69b1 100755
--- a/git-cvsserver.perl
+++ b/git-cvsserver.perl
@@ -430,10 +430,10 @@
 
     $log->debug("req_validrequests");
 
-    $log->debug("SEND : Valid-requests " . join(" ",keys %$methods));
+    $log->debug("SEND : Valid-requests " . join(" ",sort keys %$methods));
     $log->debug("SEND : ok");
 
-    print "Valid-requests " . join(" ",keys %$methods) . "\n";
+    print "Valid-requests " . join(" ",sort keys %$methods) . "\n";
     print "ok\n";
 }
 
@@ -2124,7 +2124,7 @@
             print "M retrieving revision $meta2->{revision}\n"
         }
         print "M diff ";
-        foreach my $opt ( keys %{$state->{opt}} )
+        foreach my $opt ( sort keys %{$state->{opt}} )
         {
             if ( ref $state->{opt}{$opt} eq "ARRAY" )
             {
@@ -4050,7 +4050,7 @@
             close FILELIST;
 
             # Detect deleted files
-            foreach my $file ( keys %$head )
+            foreach my $file ( sort keys %$head )
             {
                 unless ( exists $seen_files->{$file} or $head->{$file}{filehash} eq "deleted" )
                 {
@@ -4078,7 +4078,7 @@
     }
 
     $self->delete_head();
-    foreach my $file ( keys %$head )
+    foreach my $file ( sort keys %$head )
     {
         $self->insert_head(
             $file,
diff --git a/pretty.c b/pretty.c
index b4e32b7..962e82b 100644
--- a/pretty.c
+++ b/pretty.c
@@ -497,7 +497,7 @@
 static int is_empty_line(const char *line, int *len_p)
 {
 	int len = *len_p;
-	while (len && isspace(line[len-1]))
+	while (len && isspace(line[len - 1]))
 		len--;
 	*len_p = len;
 	return !len;
diff --git a/revision.c b/revision.c
index 3fdea51..956040c 100644
--- a/revision.c
+++ b/revision.c
@@ -1519,7 +1519,7 @@
 static void append_prune_data(struct cmdline_pathspec *prune, const char **av)
 {
 	while (*av) {
-		ALLOC_GROW(prune->path, prune->nr+1, prune->alloc);
+		ALLOC_GROW(prune->path, prune->nr + 1, prune->alloc);
 		prune->path[prune->nr++] = *(av++);
 	}
 }
@@ -1531,7 +1531,7 @@
 		int len = sb->len;
 		if (len && sb->buf[len - 1] == '\n')
 			sb->buf[--len] = '\0';
-		ALLOC_GROW(prune->path, prune->nr+1, prune->alloc);
+		ALLOC_GROW(prune->path, prune->nr + 1, prune->alloc);
 		prune->path[prune->nr++] = xstrdup(sb->buf);
 	}
 }
@@ -2134,7 +2134,7 @@
 		 *	call init_pathspec() to set revs->prune_data here.
 		 * }
 		 */
-		ALLOC_GROW(prune_data.path, prune_data.nr+1, prune_data.alloc);
+		ALLOC_GROW(prune_data.path, prune_data.nr + 1, prune_data.alloc);
 		prune_data.path[prune_data.nr++] = NULL;
 		parse_pathspec(&revs->prune_data, 0, 0,
 			       revs->prefix, prune_data.path);
@@ -2987,7 +2987,7 @@
 	if (revs->max_count) {
 		c = get_revision_1(revs);
 		if (c) {
-			while (0 < revs->skip_count) {
+			while (revs->skip_count > 0) {
 				revs->skip_count--;
 				c = get_revision_1(revs);
 				if (!c)
@@ -3002,9 +3002,8 @@
 	if (c)
 		c->object.flags |= SHOWN;
 
-	if (!revs->boundary) {
+	if (!revs->boundary)
 		return c;
-	}
 
 	if (!c) {
 		/*
@@ -3050,9 +3049,8 @@
 
 	if (revs->reverse) {
 		reversed = NULL;
-		while ((c = get_revision_internal(revs))) {
+		while ((c = get_revision_internal(revs)))
 			commit_list_insert(c, &reversed);
-		}
 		revs->commits = reversed;
 		revs->reverse = 0;
 		revs->reverse_output_stage = 1;
diff --git a/revision.h b/revision.h
index e7f1d21..89132df 100644
--- a/revision.h
+++ b/revision.h
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 #include "grep.h"
 #include "notes.h"
 #include "commit.h"
+#include "diff.h"
 
 #define SEEN		(1u<<0)
 #define UNINTERESTING   (1u<<1)
diff --git a/run-command.c b/run-command.c
index 1b7f88e..3914d9c 100644
--- a/run-command.c
+++ b/run-command.c
@@ -406,13 +406,12 @@
 					unsetenv(*cmd->env);
 			}
 		}
-		if (cmd->git_cmd) {
+		if (cmd->git_cmd)
 			execv_git_cmd(cmd->argv);
-		} else if (cmd->use_shell) {
+		else if (cmd->use_shell)
 			execv_shell_cmd(cmd->argv);
-		} else {
+		else
 			sane_execvp(cmd->argv[0], (char *const*) cmd->argv);
-		}
 		if (errno == ENOENT) {
 			if (!cmd->silent_exec_failure)
 				error("cannot run %s: %s", cmd->argv[0],
@@ -446,7 +445,6 @@
 		cmd->pid = -1;
 	}
 	close(notify_pipe[0]);
-
 }
 #else
 {
@@ -480,11 +478,10 @@
 	if (cmd->env)
 		env = make_augmented_environ(cmd->env);
 
-	if (cmd->git_cmd) {
+	if (cmd->git_cmd)
 		cmd->argv = prepare_git_cmd(cmd->argv);
-	} else if (cmd->use_shell) {
+	else if (cmd->use_shell)
 		cmd->argv = prepare_shell_cmd(cmd->argv);
-	}
 
 	cmd->pid = mingw_spawnvpe(cmd->argv[0], cmd->argv, env, cmd->dir,
 				  fhin, fhout, fherr);
diff --git a/setup.c b/setup.c
index dbf4138..5432a31 100644
--- a/setup.c
+++ b/setup.c
@@ -563,7 +563,7 @@
 {
 	const char *env_ceiling_dirs = getenv(CEILING_DIRECTORIES_ENVIRONMENT);
 	struct string_list ceiling_dirs = STRING_LIST_INIT_DUP;
-	static char cwd[PATH_MAX+1];
+	static char cwd[PATH_MAX + 1];
 	const char *gitdirenv, *ret;
 	char *gitfile;
 	int len, offset, offset_parent, ceil_offset = -1;
@@ -578,7 +578,7 @@
 	if (nongit_ok)
 		*nongit_ok = 0;
 
-	if (!getcwd(cwd, sizeof(cwd)-1))
+	if (!getcwd(cwd, sizeof(cwd) - 1))
 		die_errno("Unable to read current working directory");
 	offset = len = strlen(cwd);
 
diff --git a/sha1_name.c b/sha1_name.c
index 0e5fe7f..e9c2999 100644
--- a/sha1_name.c
+++ b/sha1_name.c
@@ -343,7 +343,6 @@
 	return status;
 }
 
-
 int for_each_abbrev(const char *prefix, each_abbrev_fn fn, void *cb_data)
 {
 	char hex_pfx[40];
diff --git a/t/README b/t/README
index 2167125..caeeb9d 100644
--- a/t/README
+++ b/t/README
@@ -340,7 +340,11 @@
  - use perl without spelling it as "$PERL_PATH". This is to help our
    friends on Windows where the platform Perl often adds CR before
    the end of line, and they bundle Git with a version of Perl that
-   does not do so, whose path is specified with $PERL_PATH.
+   does not do so, whose path is specified with $PERL_PATH. Note that we
+   provide a "perl" function which uses $PERL_PATH under the hood, so
+   you do not need to worry when simply running perl in the test scripts
+   (but you do, for example, on a shebang line or in a sub script
+   created via "write_script").
 
  - use sh without spelling it as "$SHELL_PATH", when the script can
    be misinterpreted by broken platform shell (e.g. Solaris).
@@ -387,7 +391,7 @@
 below), e.g.:
 
     test_expect_success PERL 'I need Perl' '
-        "$PERL_PATH" -e "hlagh() if unf_unf()"
+        perl -e "hlagh() if unf_unf()"
     '
 
 The advantage of skipping tests like this is that platforms that don't
@@ -520,7 +524,7 @@
 
 	test_external \
 	    'GitwebCache::*FileCache*' \
-	    "$PERL_PATH" "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9503/test_cache_interface.pl
+	    perl "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9503/test_cache_interface.pl
 
    If the test is outputting its own TAP you should set the
    test_external_has_tap variable somewhere before calling the first
@@ -536,7 +540,7 @@
 
 	test_external_without_stderr \
 	    'Perl API' \
-	    "$PERL_PATH" "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9700/test.pl
+	    perl "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9700/test.pl
 
  - test_expect_code <exit-code> <command>
 
@@ -629,11 +633,18 @@
 library" section above and the "test_have_prereq" function for how to
 use these, and "test_set_prereq" for how to define your own.
 
- - PERL & PYTHON
+ - PYTHON
 
-   Git wasn't compiled with NO_PERL=YesPlease or
-   NO_PYTHON=YesPlease. Wrap any tests that need Perl or Python in
-   these.
+   Git wasn't compiled with NO_PYTHON=YesPlease. Wrap any tests that
+   need Python with this.
+
+ - PERL
+
+   Git wasn't compiled with NO_PERL=YesPlease.
+
+   Even without the PERL prerequisite, tests can assume there is a
+   usable perl interpreter at $PERL_PATH, though it need not be
+   particularly modern.
 
  - POSIXPERM
 
diff --git a/t/annotate-tests.sh b/t/annotate-tests.sh
index 99caa42..c9d105d 100644
--- a/t/annotate-tests.sh
+++ b/t/annotate-tests.sh
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'merge branch1 & branch2' '
-	git pull . branch1
+	git merge branch1
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'blame 2 authors + 2 merged-in authors' '
diff --git a/t/gitweb-lib.sh b/t/gitweb-lib.sh
index 9e381e0..8cf909a 100644
--- a/t/gitweb-lib.sh
+++ b/t/gitweb-lib.sh
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@
 	# written to web server logs, so we are not interested in that:
 	# we are interested only in properly formatted errors/warnings
 	rm -f gitweb.log &&
-	"$PERL_PATH" -- "$SCRIPT_NAME" \
+	perl -- "$SCRIPT_NAME" \
 		>gitweb.output 2>gitweb.log &&
 	perl -w -e '
 		open O, ">gitweb.headers";
diff --git a/t/lib-git-svn.sh b/t/lib-git-svn.sh
index c5e55b1..b0ec12f 100644
--- a/t/lib-git-svn.sh
+++ b/t/lib-git-svn.sh
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 svnconf=$PWD/svnconf
 export svnconf
 
-"$PERL_PATH" -w -e "
+perl -w -e "
 use SVN::Core;
 use SVN::Repos;
 \$SVN::Core::VERSION gt '1.1.0' or exit(42);
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@
 }
 
 convert_to_rev_db () {
-	"$PERL_PATH" -w -- - "$@" <<\EOF
+	perl -w -- - "$@" <<\EOF
 use strict;
 @ARGV == 2 or die "usage: convert_to_rev_db <input> <output>";
 open my $wr, '+>', $ARGV[1] or die "$!: couldn't open: $ARGV[1]";
diff --git a/t/lib-pack.sh b/t/lib-pack.sh
index 7e8685b..b96e125 100644
--- a/t/lib-pack.sh
+++ b/t/lib-pack.sh
@@ -12,10 +12,10 @@
 # Print the big-endian 4-byte octal representation of $1
 uint32_octal () {
 	n=$1
-	printf '\%o' $(($n / 16777216)); n=$((n % 16777216))
-	printf '\%o' $(($n /    65536)); n=$((n %    65536))
-	printf '\%o' $(($n /      256)); n=$((n %      256))
-	printf '\%o' $(($n           ));
+	printf '\\%o' $(($n / 16777216)); n=$((n % 16777216))
+	printf '\\%o' $(($n /    65536)); n=$((n %    65536))
+	printf '\\%o' $(($n /      256)); n=$((n %      256))
+	printf '\\%o' $(($n           ));
 }
 
 # Print the big-endian 4-byte binary representation of $1
diff --git a/t/lib-terminal.sh b/t/lib-terminal.sh
index 58d911d..737df28 100644
--- a/t/lib-terminal.sh
+++ b/t/lib-terminal.sh
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 	then
 		:
 	elif
-		"$PERL_PATH" "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/test-terminal.perl \
+		perl "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/test-terminal.perl \
 			sh -c "test -t 1 && test -t 2"
 	then
 		test_set_prereq TTY &&
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 				echo >&4 "test_terminal: need to declare TTY prerequisite"
 				return 127
 			fi
-			"$PERL_PATH" "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/test-terminal.perl "$@"
+			perl "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/test-terminal.perl "$@"
 		}
 	fi
 '
diff --git a/t/t0008-ignores.sh b/t/t0008-ignores.sh
index 181513a..b4d98e6 100755
--- a/t/t0008-ignores.sh
+++ b/t/t0008-ignores.sh
@@ -37,6 +37,14 @@
 	test_cmp "$HOME/expected-stderr" "$HOME/stderr"
 }
 
+broken_c_unquote () {
+	"$PERL_PATH" -pe 's/^"//; s/\\//; s/"$//; tr/\n/\0/' "$@"
+}
+
+broken_c_unquote_verbose () {
+	"$PERL_PATH" -pe 's/	"/	/; s/\\//; s/"$//; tr/:\t\n/\0/' "$@"
+}
+
 stderr_contains () {
 	regexp="$1"
 	if grep "$regexp" "$HOME/stderr"
@@ -606,12 +614,11 @@
 	$global_excludes:2:!globaltwo	b/globaltwo
 EOF
 
-sed -e 's/^"//' -e 's/\\//' -e 's/"$//' stdin | \
-	tr "\n" "\0" >stdin0
-sed -e 's/^"//' -e 's/\\//' -e 's/"$//' expected-default | \
-	tr "\n" "\0" >expected-default0
-sed -e 's/	"/	/' -e 's/\\//' -e 's/"$//' expected-verbose | \
-	tr ":\t\n" "\0" >expected-verbose0
+broken_c_unquote stdin >stdin0
+
+broken_c_unquote expected-default >expected-default0
+
+broken_c_unquote_verbose expected-verbose >expected-verbose0
 
 test_expect_success '--stdin' '
 	expect_from_stdin <expected-default &&
@@ -692,12 +699,11 @@
 grep -v '^::	' expected-all >expected-verbose
 sed -e 's/.*	//' expected-verbose >expected-default
 
-sed -e 's/^"//' -e 's/\\//' -e 's/"$//' stdin | \
-	tr "\n" "\0" >stdin0
-sed -e 's/^"//' -e 's/\\//' -e 's/"$//' expected-default | \
-	tr "\n" "\0" >expected-default0
-sed -e 's/	"/	/' -e 's/\\//' -e 's/"$//' expected-verbose | \
-	tr ":\t\n" "\0" >expected-verbose0
+broken_c_unquote stdin >stdin0
+
+broken_c_unquote expected-default >expected-default0
+
+broken_c_unquote_verbose expected-verbose >expected-verbose0
 
 test_expect_success '--stdin from subdirectory' '
 	expect_from_stdin <expected-default &&
diff --git a/t/t0202-gettext-perl.sh b/t/t0202-gettext-perl.sh
index 428ebb0..a29d166 100755
--- a/t/t0202-gettext-perl.sh
+++ b/t/t0202-gettext-perl.sh
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 	test_done
 fi
 
-"$PERL_PATH" -MTest::More -e 0 2>/dev/null || {
+perl -MTest::More -e 0 2>/dev/null || {
 	skip_all="Perl Test::More unavailable, skipping test"
 	test_done
 }
@@ -22,6 +22,6 @@
 
 test_external_without_stderr \
     'Perl Git::I18N API' \
-    "$PERL_PATH" "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t0202/test.pl
+    perl "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t0202/test.pl
 
 test_done
diff --git a/t/t1010-mktree.sh b/t/t1010-mktree.sh
index df573c4..b946f87 100755
--- a/t/t1010-mktree.sh
+++ b/t/t1010-mktree.sh
@@ -42,13 +42,13 @@
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'ls-tree output in wrong order given to mktree (1)' '
-	"$PERL_PATH" -e "print reverse <>" <top |
+	perl -e "print reverse <>" <top |
 	git mktree >actual &&
 	test_cmp tree actual
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'ls-tree output in wrong order given to mktree (2)' '
-	"$PERL_PATH" -e "print reverse <>" <top.withsub |
+	perl -e "print reverse <>" <top.withsub |
 	git mktree >actual &&
 	test_cmp tree.withsub actual
 '
diff --git a/t/t3300-funny-names.sh b/t/t3300-funny-names.sh
index 7480d6e..9a146f1 100755
--- a/t/t3300-funny-names.sh
+++ b/t/t3300-funny-names.sh
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@
 	tabs	," (dq) and spaces
 	EOF
 	git ls-files -z >ls-files.z &&
-	"$PERL_PATH" -pe "y/\000/\012/" <ls-files.z >current &&
+	perl -pe "y/\000/\012/" <ls-files.z >current &&
 	test_cmp expected current
 '
 
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@
 	tabs	," (dq) and spaces
 	EOF
 	git diff-index -z --name-status $t0 >diff-index.z &&
-	"$PERL_PATH" -pe "y/\000/\012/" <diff-index.z >current &&
+	perl -pe "y/\000/\012/" <diff-index.z >current &&
 	test_cmp expected current
 '
 
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@
 	tabs	," (dq) and spaces
 	EOF
 	git diff-tree -z --name-status $t0 $t1 >diff-tree.z &&
-	"$PERL_PATH" -pe y/\\000/\\012/ <diff-tree.z >current &&
+	perl -pe y/\\000/\\012/ <diff-tree.z >current &&
 	test_cmp expected current
 '
 
diff --git a/t/t4014-format-patch.sh b/t/t4014-format-patch.sh
index 8f272bc..73194b2 100755
--- a/t/t4014-format-patch.sh
+++ b/t/t4014-format-patch.sh
@@ -293,7 +293,7 @@
 	(git format-patch --stdout "$@"; echo $? > status.out) |
 	# Prints everything between the Message-ID and In-Reply-To,
 	# and replaces all Message-ID-lookalikes by a sequence number
-	"$PERL_PATH" -ne '
+	perl -ne '
 		if (/^(message-id|references|in-reply-to)/i) {
 			$printing = 1;
 		} elsif (/^\S/) {
diff --git a/t/t4015-diff-whitespace.sh b/t/t4015-diff-whitespace.sh
index 3fb4b97..604a838 100755
--- a/t/t4015-diff-whitespace.sh
+++ b/t/t4015-diff-whitespace.sh
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@
 test_expect_success 'ignore-blank-lines: only new lines' '
 	test_seq 5 >x &&
 	git update-index x &&
-	test_seq 5 | sed "/3/i \\
+	test_seq 5 | sed "/3/i\\
 " >x &&
 	git diff --ignore-blank-lines >out &&
 	>expect &&
@@ -155,7 +155,8 @@
 test_expect_success 'ignore-blank-lines: only new lines with space' '
 	test_seq 5 >x &&
 	git update-index x &&
-	test_seq 5 | sed "/3/i \ " >x &&
+	test_seq 5 | sed "/3/i\\
+ " >x &&
 	git diff -w --ignore-blank-lines >out &&
 	>expect &&
 	test_cmp out expect
diff --git a/t/t4020-diff-external.sh b/t/t4020-diff-external.sh
index 2e7d73f..8a30979 100755
--- a/t/t4020-diff-external.sh
+++ b/t/t4020-diff-external.sh
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@
 	git diff | grep Binary
 '
 
-echo NULZbetweenZwords | "$PERL_PATH" -pe 'y/Z/\000/' > file
+echo NULZbetweenZwords | perl -pe 'y/Z/\000/' > file
 
 test_expect_success 'force diff with "diff"' '
 	echo >.gitattributes "file diff" &&
diff --git a/t/t4029-diff-trailing-space.sh b/t/t4029-diff-trailing-space.sh
index 36e2f07..3ccc237 100755
--- a/t/t4029-diff-trailing-space.sh
+++ b/t/t4029-diff-trailing-space.sh
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
      git config --bool diff.suppressBlankEmpty true &&
      git diff f > actual &&
      test_cmp exp actual &&
-     "$PERL_PATH" -i.bak -p -e "s/^\$/ /" exp &&
+     perl -i.bak -p -e "s/^\$/ /" exp &&
      git config --bool diff.suppressBlankEmpty false &&
      git diff f > actual &&
      test_cmp exp actual &&
diff --git a/t/t4103-apply-binary.sh b/t/t4103-apply-binary.sh
index b1b906b..1b420e3 100755
--- a/t/t4103-apply-binary.sh
+++ b/t/t4103-apply-binary.sh
@@ -23,10 +23,10 @@
 	git commit -m "Initial Version" 2>/dev/null &&
 
 	git checkout -b binary &&
-	"$PERL_PATH" -pe "y/x/\000/" <file1 >file3 &&
+	perl -pe "y/x/\000/" <file1 >file3 &&
 	cat file3 >file4 &&
 	git add file2 &&
-	"$PERL_PATH" -pe "y/\000/v/" <file3 >file1 &&
+	perl -pe "y/\000/v/" <file3 >file1 &&
 	rm -f file2 &&
 	git update-index --add --remove file1 file2 file3 file4 &&
 	git commit -m "Second Version" &&
diff --git a/t/t4116-apply-reverse.sh b/t/t4116-apply-reverse.sh
index fca8153..2298ece 100755
--- a/t/t4116-apply-reverse.sh
+++ b/t/t4116-apply-reverse.sh
@@ -12,14 +12,14 @@
 test_expect_success setup '
 
 	for i in a b c d e f g h i j k l m n; do echo $i; done >file1 &&
-	"$PERL_PATH" -pe "y/ijk/\\000\\001\\002/" <file1 >file2 &&
+	perl -pe "y/ijk/\\000\\001\\002/" <file1 >file2 &&
 
 	git add file1 file2 &&
 	git commit -m initial &&
 	git tag initial &&
 
 	for i in a b c g h i J K L m o n p q; do echo $i; done >file1 &&
-	"$PERL_PATH" -pe "y/mon/\\000\\001\\002/" <file1 >file2 &&
+	perl -pe "y/mon/\\000\\001\\002/" <file1 >file2 &&
 
 	git commit -a -m second &&
 	git tag second &&
diff --git a/t/t4200-rerere.sh b/t/t4200-rerere.sh
index 7f6666f..ed9c91e 100755
--- a/t/t4200-rerere.sh
+++ b/t/t4200-rerere.sh
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@
 	test_might_fail git config --unset rerere.enabled &&
 	test_must_fail git merge first &&
 
-	sha1=$("$PERL_PATH" -pe "s/	.*//" .git/MERGE_RR) &&
+	sha1=$(perl -pe "s/	.*//" .git/MERGE_RR) &&
 	rr=.git/rr-cache/$sha1 &&
 	grep "^=======\$" $rr/preimage &&
 	! test -f $rr/postimage &&
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@
 	git reset --hard &&
 	test_must_fail git merge first &&
 
-	sha1=$("$PERL_PATH" -pe "s/	.*//" .git/MERGE_RR) &&
+	sha1=$(perl -pe "s/	.*//" .git/MERGE_RR) &&
 	rr=.git/rr-cache/$sha1 &&
 	grep ^=======$ $rr/preimage
 '
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@
 	git config rerere.enabled true &&
 	git reset --hard &&
 	test_must_fail git merge first &&
-	sha1=$("$PERL_PATH" -pe "s/	.*//" .git/MERGE_RR) &&
+	sha1=$(perl -pe "s/	.*//" .git/MERGE_RR) &&
 	rr=.git/rr-cache/$sha1
 '
 
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@
 	git show second^:a1 | sed "s/To die: t/To die! T/" >a1 &&
 	git commit -q -a -m third &&
 
-	test_must_fail git pull . first &&
+	test_must_fail git merge first &&
 	# rerere kicked in
 	! grep "^=======\$" a1 &&
 	test_cmp expect a1
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@
 
 test_expect_success 'rerere clear' '
 	rm $rr/postimage &&
-	echo "$sha1	a1" | "$PERL_PATH" -pe "y/\012/\000/" >.git/MERGE_RR &&
+	echo "$sha1	a1" | perl -pe "y/\012/\000/" >.git/MERGE_RR &&
 	git rerere clear &&
 	! test -d $rr
 '
diff --git a/t/t5300-pack-object.sh b/t/t5300-pack-object.sh
index 61e787d..20c1961 100755
--- a/t/t5300-pack-object.sh
+++ b/t/t5300-pack-object.sh
@@ -13,9 +13,9 @@
 test_expect_success \
     'setup' \
     'rm -f .git/index* &&
-     "$PERL_PATH" -e "print \"a\" x 4096;" > a &&
-     "$PERL_PATH" -e "print \"b\" x 4096;" > b &&
-     "$PERL_PATH" -e "print \"c\" x 4096;" > c &&
+     perl -e "print \"a\" x 4096;" > a &&
+     perl -e "print \"b\" x 4096;" > b &&
+     perl -e "print \"c\" x 4096;" > c &&
      test-genrandom "seed a" 2097152 > a_big &&
      test-genrandom "seed b" 2097152 > b_big &&
      git update-index --add a a_big b b_big c &&
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@
 cd "$TRASH"
 
 test_expect_success 'compare delta flavors' '
-	"$PERL_PATH" -e '\''
+	perl -e '\''
 		defined($_ = -s $_) or die for @ARGV;
 		exit 1 if $ARGV[0] <= $ARGV[1];
 	'\'' test-2-$packname_2.pack test-3-$packname_3.pack
diff --git a/t/t5303-pack-corruption-resilience.sh b/t/t5303-pack-corruption-resilience.sh
index 35926de..663b02b 100755
--- a/t/t5303-pack-corruption-resilience.sh
+++ b/t/t5303-pack-corruption-resilience.sh
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@
     'create_new_pack &&
      git prune-packed &&
      chmod +w ${pack}.pack &&
-     "$PERL_PATH" -i.bak -pe "s/ base /abcdef/" ${pack}.pack &&
+     perl -i.bak -pe "s/ base /abcdef/" ${pack}.pack &&
      test_must_fail git cat-file blob $blob_1 > /dev/null &&
      test_must_fail git cat-file blob $blob_2 > /dev/null &&
      test_must_fail git cat-file blob $blob_3 > /dev/null'
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@
     'create_new_pack &&
      git prune-packed &&
      chmod +w ${pack}.pack &&
-     "$PERL_PATH" -i.bak -pe "s/ delta1 /abcdefgh/" ${pack}.pack &&
+     perl -i.bak -pe "s/ delta1 /abcdefgh/" ${pack}.pack &&
      git cat-file blob $blob_1 > /dev/null &&
      test_must_fail git cat-file blob $blob_2 > /dev/null &&
      test_must_fail git cat-file blob $blob_3 > /dev/null'
diff --git a/t/t5551-http-fetch.sh b/t/t5551-http-fetch.sh
index fb16833..afb439e 100755
--- a/t/t5551-http-fetch.sh
+++ b/t/t5551-http-fetch.sh
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@
 	done | git fast-import --export-marks=marks &&
 
 	# now assign tags to all the dangling commits we created above
-	tag=$("$PERL_PATH" -e "print \"bla\" x 30") &&
+	tag=$(perl -e "print \"bla\" x 30") &&
 	sed -e "s|^:\([^ ]*\) \(.*\)$|\2 refs/tags/$tag-\1|" <marks >>packed-refs
 	)
 '
diff --git a/t/t6011-rev-list-with-bad-commit.sh b/t/t6011-rev-list-with-bad-commit.sh
index bbb0581..e51eb41 100755
--- a/t/t6011-rev-list-with-bad-commit.sh
+++ b/t/t6011-rev-list-with-bad-commit.sh
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
 
 test_expect_success 'corrupt second commit object' \
    '
-   "$PERL_PATH" -i.bak -pe "s/second commit/socond commit/" .git/objects/pack/*.pack &&
+   perl -i.bak -pe "s/second commit/socond commit/" .git/objects/pack/*.pack &&
    test_must_fail git fsck --full
    '
 
diff --git a/t/t6013-rev-list-reverse-parents.sh b/t/t6013-rev-list-reverse-parents.sh
index 892a537..59fc2f0 100755
--- a/t/t6013-rev-list-reverse-parents.sh
+++ b/t/t6013-rev-list-reverse-parents.sh
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
 
 test_expect_success '--reverse --parents --full-history combines correctly' '
 	git rev-list --parents --full-history master -- foo |
-		"$PERL_PATH" -e "print reverse <>" > expected &&
+		perl -e "print reverse <>" > expected &&
 	git rev-list --reverse --parents --full-history master -- foo \
 		> actual &&
 	test_cmp actual expected
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 
 test_expect_success '--boundary does too' '
 	git rev-list --boundary --parents --full-history master ^root -- foo |
-		"$PERL_PATH" -e "print reverse <>" > expected &&
+		perl -e "print reverse <>" > expected &&
 	git rev-list --boundary --reverse --parents --full-history \
 		master ^root -- foo > actual &&
 	test_cmp actual expected
diff --git a/t/t7508-status.sh b/t/t7508-status.sh
index 6fb59f3..c987b5e 100755
--- a/t/t7508-status.sh
+++ b/t/t7508-status.sh
@@ -994,7 +994,7 @@
 
 test_expect_success 'status -z implies porcelain' '
 	git status --porcelain |
-	"$PERL_PATH" -pe "s/\012/\000/g" >expect &&
+	perl -pe "s/\012/\000/g" >expect &&
 	git status -z >output &&
 	test_cmp expect output
 '
diff --git a/t/t9114-git-svn-dcommit-merge.sh b/t/t9114-git-svn-dcommit-merge.sh
index f524d2f..d33d714 100755
--- a/t/t9114-git-svn-dcommit-merge.sh
+++ b/t/t9114-git-svn-dcommit-merge.sh
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@
 	echo friend > README &&
 	cat tmp >> README &&
 	git commit -a -m "friend" &&
-	git pull . merge
+	git merge merge
 	'
 
 test_debug 'gitk --all & sleep 1'
diff --git a/t/t9129-git-svn-i18n-commitencoding.sh b/t/t9129-git-svn-i18n-commitencoding.sh
index 9a40f1e..8cfdfe7 100755
--- a/t/t9129-git-svn-i18n-commitencoding.sh
+++ b/t/t9129-git-svn-i18n-commitencoding.sh
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 compare_svn_head_with () {
 	# extract just the log message and strip out committer info.
 	# don't use --limit here since svn 1.1.x doesn't have it,
-	LC_ALL="$a_utf8_locale" svn log `git svn info --url` | "$PERL_PATH" -w -e '
+	LC_ALL="$a_utf8_locale" svn log `git svn info --url` | perl -w -e '
 		use bytes;
 		$/ = ("-"x72) . "\n";
 		my @x = <STDIN>;
diff --git a/t/t9137-git-svn-dcommit-clobber-series.sh b/t/t9137-git-svn-dcommit-clobber-series.sh
index c17aa31..d60da63 100755
--- a/t/t9137-git-svn-dcommit-clobber-series.sh
+++ b/t/t9137-git-svn-dcommit-clobber-series.sh
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@
 	test x"`sed -n -e 61p < file`" = x61 &&
 	svn_cmd co "$svnrepo" tmp &&
 	(cd tmp &&
-		"$PERL_PATH" -i.bak -p -e "s/^58$/5588/" file &&
-		"$PERL_PATH" -i.bak -p -e "s/^61$/6611/" file &&
+		perl -i.bak -p -e "s/^58$/5588/" file &&
+		perl -i.bak -p -e "s/^61$/6611/" file &&
 		poke file &&
 		test x"`sed -n -e 58p < file`" = x5588 &&
 		test x"`sed -n -e 61p < file`" = x6611 &&
@@ -40,8 +40,8 @@
 test_expect_success 'change file but in unrelated area' "
 	test x\"\`sed -n -e 4p < file\`\" = x4 &&
 	test x\"\`sed -n -e 7p < file\`\" = x7 &&
-	"$PERL_PATH" -i.bak -p -e 's/^4\$/4444/' file &&
-	"$PERL_PATH" -i.bak -p -e 's/^7\$/7777/' file &&
+	perl -i.bak -p -e 's/^4\$/4444/' file &&
+	perl -i.bak -p -e 's/^7\$/7777/' file &&
 	test x\"\`sed -n -e 4p < file\`\" = x4444 &&
 	test x\"\`sed -n -e 7p < file\`\" = x7777 &&
 	git commit -m '4 => 4444, 7 => 7777' file &&
diff --git a/t/t9300-fast-import.sh b/t/t9300-fast-import.sh
index 88fc407..27263df 100755
--- a/t/t9300-fast-import.sh
+++ b/t/t9300-fast-import.sh
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 # This could be written as "head -c $1", but IRIX "head" does not
 # support the -c option.
 head_c () {
-	"$PERL_PATH" -e '
+	perl -e '
 		my $len = $ARGV[1];
 		while ($len > 0) {
 			my $s;
diff --git a/t/t9350-fast-export.sh b/t/t9350-fast-export.sh
index 34c2d8f..2312dec 100755
--- a/t/t9350-fast-export.sh
+++ b/t/t9350-fast-export.sh
@@ -429,7 +429,7 @@
 		--cacheinfo 100644 $blob "path with \\backslash" \
 		--cacheinfo 100644 $blob "path with space" &&
 	 git commit -m addition &&
-	 git ls-files -z -s | "$PERL_PATH" -0pe "s{\\t}{$&subdir/}" >index &&
+	 git ls-files -z -s | perl -0pe "s{\\t}{$&subdir/}" >index &&
 	 git read-tree --empty &&
 	 git update-index -z --index-info <index &&
 	 git commit -m rename &&
diff --git a/t/t9400-git-cvsserver-server.sh b/t/t9400-git-cvsserver-server.sh
index 0431386..3edc408 100755
--- a/t/t9400-git-cvsserver-server.sh
+++ b/t/t9400-git-cvsserver-server.sh
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
     skip_all='skipping git-cvsserver tests, cvs not found'
     test_done
 fi
-"$PERL_PATH" -e 'use DBI; use DBD::SQLite' >/dev/null 2>&1 || {
+perl -e 'use DBI; use DBD::SQLite' >/dev/null 2>&1 || {
     skip_all='skipping git-cvsserver tests, Perl SQLite interface unavailable'
     test_done
 }
diff --git a/t/t9401-git-cvsserver-crlf.sh b/t/t9401-git-cvsserver-crlf.sh
index 8c3db76..5a4ed28 100755
--- a/t/t9401-git-cvsserver-crlf.sh
+++ b/t/t9401-git-cvsserver-crlf.sh
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@
     skip_all='skipping git-cvsserver tests, perl not available'
     test_done
 fi
-"$PERL_PATH" -e 'use DBI; use DBD::SQLite' >/dev/null 2>&1 || {
+perl -e 'use DBI; use DBD::SQLite' >/dev/null 2>&1 || {
     skip_all='skipping git-cvsserver tests, Perl SQLite interface unavailable'
     test_done
 }
diff --git a/t/t9402-git-cvsserver-refs.sh b/t/t9402-git-cvsserver-refs.sh
index db69af2..1e266ef 100755
--- a/t/t9402-git-cvsserver-refs.sh
+++ b/t/t9402-git-cvsserver-refs.sh
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
 	skip_all='skipping git-cvsserver tests, perl not available'
 	test_done
 fi
-"$PERL_PATH" -e 'use DBI; use DBD::SQLite' >/dev/null 2>&1 || {
+perl -e 'use DBI; use DBD::SQLite' >/dev/null 2>&1 || {
 	skip_all='skipping git-cvsserver tests, Perl SQLite interface unavailable'
 	test_done
 }
diff --git a/t/t9500-gitweb-standalone-no-errors.sh b/t/t9500-gitweb-standalone-no-errors.sh
index 718014d..e74b9ab 100755
--- a/t/t9500-gitweb-standalone-no-errors.sh
+++ b/t/t9500-gitweb-standalone-no-errors.sh
@@ -328,7 +328,7 @@
 	 git add b &&
 	 git commit -a -m "On branch" &&
 	 git checkout master &&
-	 git pull . b &&
+	 git merge b &&
 	 git tag merge_commit'
 
 test_expect_success \
diff --git a/t/t9700-perl-git.sh b/t/t9700-perl-git.sh
index 435d896..102c133 100755
--- a/t/t9700-perl-git.sh
+++ b/t/t9700-perl-git.sh
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 	test_done
 fi
 
-"$PERL_PATH" -MTest::More -e 0 2>/dev/null || {
+perl -MTest::More -e 0 2>/dev/null || {
 	skip_all="Perl Test::More unavailable, skipping test"
 	test_done
 }
@@ -55,6 +55,6 @@
 
 test_external_without_stderr \
     'Perl API' \
-    "$PERL_PATH" "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9700/test.pl
+    perl "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9700/test.pl
 
 test_done
diff --git a/t/t9810-git-p4-rcs.sh b/t/t9810-git-p4-rcs.sh
index 34fbc90..8134ab4 100755
--- a/t/t9810-git-p4-rcs.sh
+++ b/t/t9810-git-p4-rcs.sh
@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@
 		git config git-p4.attemptRCSCleanup true &&
 		(cd "$cli" && p4_append_to_file kwfile1.c) &&
 		old_lines=$(wc -l <kwfile1.c) &&
-		"$PERL_PATH" -n -i -e "print unless m/Revision:/" kwfile1.c &&
+		perl -n -i -e "print unless m/Revision:/" kwfile1.c &&
 		new_lines=$(wc -l <kwfile1.c) &&
 		test $new_lines = $(($old_lines - 1)) &&
 
diff --git a/t/test-lib-functions.sh b/t/test-lib-functions.sh
index f987694..2f79146 100644
--- a/t/test-lib-functions.sh
+++ b/t/test-lib-functions.sh
@@ -76,11 +76,11 @@
 }
 
 nul_to_q () {
-	"$PERL_PATH" -pe 'y/\000/Q/'
+	perl -pe 'y/\000/Q/'
 }
 
 q_to_nul () {
-	"$PERL_PATH" -pe 'y/Q/\000/'
+	perl -pe 'y/Q/\000/'
 }
 
 q_to_cr () {
@@ -648,7 +648,7 @@
 	2)	;;
 	*)	error "bug in the test script: not 1 or 2 parameters to test_seq" ;;
 	esac
-	"$PERL_PATH" -le 'print for $ARGV[0]..$ARGV[1]' -- "$@"
+	perl -le 'print for $ARGV[0]..$ARGV[1]' -- "$@"
 }
 
 # This function can be used to schedule some commands to be run
@@ -711,6 +711,10 @@
 	fi
 }
 
+perl () {
+	command "$PERL_PATH" "$@"
+}
+
 # The following mingw_* functions obey POSIX shell syntax, but are actually
 # bash scripts, and are meant to be used only with bash on Windows.
 
diff --git a/transport-helper.c b/transport-helper.c
index b32e2d6..673b7c2 100644
--- a/transport-helper.c
+++ b/transport-helper.c
@@ -269,6 +269,7 @@
 	TRANS_OPT_THIN,
 	TRANS_OPT_KEEP
 	};
+
 static const char *boolean_options[] = {
 	TRANS_OPT_THIN,
 	TRANS_OPT_KEEP,