lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm | 5 +++++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm
index 236f70c165af6a275ab0898486cb7992700bae09..a4daaa48f0914f538e1232b66267384a2dafec0d 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm
@@ -59,6 +59,11 @@ 	my ($self, $path) = @_;
 	$self->{-git_path}->{$path} ||= do {
 		local $/ = "\n";
 		chomp(my $str = $self->qx(qw(rev-parse --git-path), $path));
+
+		# git prior to 2.5.0 did not understand --git-path
+		if ($str eq "--git-path\n$path") {
+			$str = "$self->{git_dir}/$path";
+		}
 		$str;
 	};
 }