lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm | 1 +

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm
index 47a529ff6767fee583af0138a907a0b4ca8343d5..0aff0e9dc96e8a21e78c3f99ab34bbc089ef7303 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ use POSIX qw(strftime);
 
 sub default_branch () {
 	state $default_branch = do {
+		delete local $ENV{GIT_CONFIG};
 		my $r = popen_rd([qw(git config --global init.defaultBranch)]);
 		chomp(my $h = <$r> // '');
 		$h eq '' ? 'refs/heads/master' : $h;