diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index f22ab57461..18aecd9bf5 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -139,3 +139,91 @@ void sync(void)
 void openlog(const char *ident, int option, int facility)
 {
 }
+
+static const char *quote_arg(const char *arg)
+{
+	/* count chars to quote */
+	int len = 0, n = 0;
+	int force_quotes = 0;
+	char *q, *d;
+	const char *p = arg;
+	while (*p) {
+		if (isspace(*p))
+			force_quotes = 1;
+		else if (*p == '"' || *p == '\\')
+			n++;
+		len++;
+		p++;
+	}
+	if (!force_quotes && n == 0)
+		return arg;
+
+	/* insert \ where necessary */
+	d = q = xmalloc(len+n+3);
+	*d++ = '"';
+	while (*arg) {
+		if (*arg == '"' || *arg == '\\')
+			*d++ = '\\';
+		*d++ = *arg++;
+	}
+	*d++ = '"';
+	*d++ = 0;
+	return q;
+}
+
+static void quote_argv(const char **dst, const char **src)
+{
+	while (*src)
+		*dst++ = quote_arg(*src++);
+	*dst = NULL;
+}
+
+static int try_shell_exec(const char *cmd, const char **argv, const char **env)
+{
+	char buf[100], *p;
+	const char **sh_argv;
+	int n;
+	int fd = open(cmd, O_RDONLY);
+	if (fd < 0)
+		return 0;
+	n = read(fd, buf, sizeof(buf)-1);
+	close(fd);
+	if (n < 5)	/* at least '#!/sh' and not error */
+		return 0;
+
+	/* check whether the interpreter is sh */
+	if (buf[0] != '#' || buf[1] != '!')
+		return 0;
+	buf[n] = '\0';
+	p = strchr(buf, '\n');
+	if (!p ||
+	    (p[-3] != '/' && p[-3] != '\\') ||
+	    p[-2] != 's' || p[-1] != 'h')
+		return 0;
+
+	/*
+	 * expand
+	 *    git-foo args...
+	 * into
+	 *    sh git-foo args...
+	 */
+	for (n = 0; argv[n];) n++;
+	sh_argv = xmalloc((n+2)*sizeof(char*));
+	sh_argv[0] = "sh";
+	sh_argv[1] = cmd;
+	quote_argv(&sh_argv[2], &argv[1]);
+	n = spawnvpe(_P_WAIT, "sh", sh_argv, env);
+	if (n == -1)
+		return 1;	/* indicate that we tried but failed */
+	exit(n);
+}
+
+void mingw_execve(const char *cmd, const char **argv, const char **env)
+{
+	/* check if git_command is a shell script */
+	if (!try_shell_exec(cmd, argv, env)) {
+		int ret = spawnve(_P_WAIT, cmd, argv, env);
+		if (ret != -1)
+			exit(ret);
+	}
+}
diff --git a/git-compat-util.h b/git-compat-util.h
index d361fcaee8..4b213815b7 100644
--- a/git-compat-util.h
+++ b/git-compat-util.h
@@ -306,6 +306,8 @@ int syslog(int type, char *bufp, ...);
 #define LOG_DAEMON 4
 unsigned int alarm(unsigned int seconds);
 #include <winsock2.h>
+void mingw_execve(const char *cmd, const char **argv, const char **env);
+#define execve mingw_execve
 int fork();
 typedef int pid_t;
 pid_t waitpid(pid_t pid, int *status, int options);