diff --git a/Documentation/glossary-content.txt b/Documentation/glossary-content.txt
index 33716a31d0..0ca029b738 100644
--- a/Documentation/glossary-content.txt
+++ b/Documentation/glossary-content.txt
@@ -277,7 +277,8 @@ This commit is referred to as a "merge commit", or sometimes just a
        Pattern used to specify paths.
 +
 Pathspecs are used on the command line of "git ls-files", "git
-ls-tree", "git grep", "git checkout", and many other commands to
+ls-tree", "git add", "git grep", "git diff", "git checkout",
+and many other commands to
 limit the scope of operations to some subset of the tree or
 worktree.  See the documentation of each command for whether
 paths are relative to the current directory or toplevel.  The
@@ -296,6 +297,37 @@ For example, Documentation/*.jpg will match all .jpg files
 in the Documentation subtree,
 including Documentation/chapter_1/figure_1.jpg.
 
++
+A pathspec that begins with a colon `:` has special meaning.  In the
+short form, the leading colon `:` is followed by zero or more "magic
+signature" letters (which optionally is terminated by another colon `:`),
+and the remainder is the pattern to match against the path. The optional
+colon that terminates the "magic signature" can be omitted if the pattern
+begins with a character that cannot be a "magic signature" and is not a
+colon.
++
+In the long form, the leading colon `:` is followed by a open
+parenthesis `(`, a comma-separated list of zero or more "magic words",
+and a close parentheses `)`, and the remainder is the pattern to match
+against the path.
++
+The "magic signature" consists of an ASCII symbol that is not
+alphanumeric.
++
+--
+top `/`;;
+	The magic word `top` (mnemonic: `/`) makes the pattern match
+	from the root of the working tree, even when you are running
+	the command from inside a subdirectory.
+icase;;
+	The magic word `icase` (there is no mnemonic for it) makes the
+	pattern match case insensitively.  E.g. `:(icase)makefile` matches
+	both `Makefile` and `makefile`.
+--
++
+It is envisioned that we will support more types of magic in later
+versions of git.
+
 [[def_parent]]parent::
 	A <<def_commit_object,commit object>> contains a (possibly empty) list
 	of the logical predecessor(s) in the line of development, i.e. its
diff --git a/ctype.c b/ctype.c
index de600279ee..b5d856fd26 100644
--- a/ctype.c
+++ b/ctype.c
@@ -10,17 +10,18 @@ enum {
 	A = GIT_ALPHA,
 	D = GIT_DIGIT,
 	G = GIT_GLOB_SPECIAL,	/* *, ?, [, \\ */
-	R = GIT_REGEX_SPECIAL	/* $, (, ), +, ., ^, {, | */
+	R = GIT_REGEX_SPECIAL,	/* $, (, ), +, ., ^, {, | */
+	P = GIT_PATHSPEC_MAGIC  /* other non-alnum, except for ] and } */
 };
 
 unsigned char sane_ctype[256] = {
 	0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, S, S, 0, 0, S, 0, 0,		/*   0.. 15 */
 	0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,		/*  16.. 31 */
-	S, 0, 0, 0, R, 0, 0, 0, R, R, G, R, 0, 0, R, 0,		/*  32.. 47 */
-	D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, G,		/*  48.. 63 */
-	0, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A,		/*  64.. 79 */
-	A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, G, G, 0, R, 0,		/*  80.. 95 */
-	0, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A,		/*  96..111 */
-	A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, R, R, 0, 0, 0,		/* 112..127 */
+	S, P, P, P, R, P, P, P, R, R, G, R, P, P, R, P,		/*  32.. 47 */
+	D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, P, P, P, P, P, G,		/*  48.. 63 */
+	P, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A,		/*  64.. 79 */
+	A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, G, G, 0, R, P,		/*  80.. 95 */
+	P, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A,		/*  96..111 */
+	A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, R, R, 0, P, 0,		/* 112..127 */
 	/* Nothing in the 128.. range */
 };
diff --git a/git-compat-util.h b/git-compat-util.h
index 40498b33c9..e0bb81ed8d 100644
--- a/git-compat-util.h
+++ b/git-compat-util.h
@@ -463,6 +463,7 @@ extern unsigned char sane_ctype[256];
 #define GIT_ALPHA 0x04
 #define GIT_GLOB_SPECIAL 0x08
 #define GIT_REGEX_SPECIAL 0x10
+#define GIT_PATHSPEC_MAGIC 0x20
 #define sane_istest(x,mask) ((sane_ctype[(unsigned char)(x)] & (mask)) != 0)
 #define isascii(x) (((x) & ~0x7f) == 0)
 #define isspace(x) sane_istest(x,GIT_SPACE)
@@ -473,6 +474,7 @@ extern unsigned char sane_ctype[256];
 #define is_regex_special(x) sane_istest(x,GIT_GLOB_SPECIAL | GIT_REGEX_SPECIAL)
 #define tolower(x) sane_case((unsigned char)(x), 0x20)
 #define toupper(x) sane_case((unsigned char)(x), 0)
+#define is_pathspec_magic(x) sane_istest(x,GIT_PATHSPEC_MAGIC)
 
 static inline int sane_case(int x, int high)
 {
diff --git a/setup.c b/setup.c
index b6e6b5ae27..4f6b2dac5f 100644
--- a/setup.c
+++ b/setup.c
@@ -126,6 +126,131 @@ void verify_non_filename(const char *prefix, const char *arg)
 	    "Use '--' to separate filenames from revisions", arg);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Magic pathspec
+ *
+ * NEEDSWORK: These need to be moved to dir.h or even to a new
+ * pathspec.h when we restructure get_pathspec() users to use the
+ * "struct pathspec" interface.
+ *
+ * Possible future magic semantics include stuff like:
+ *
+ *	{ PATHSPEC_NOGLOB, '!', "noglob" },
+ *	{ PATHSPEC_RECURSIVE, '*', "recursive" },
+ *	{ PATHSPEC_REGEXP, '\0', "regexp" },
+ *
+ */
+#define PATHSPEC_FROMTOP    (1<<0)
+#define PATHSPEC_ICASE      (1<<1)
+
+struct pathspec_magic {
+	unsigned bit;
+	char mnemonic; /* this cannot be ':'! */
+	const char *name;
+} pathspec_magic[] = {
+	{ PATHSPEC_FROMTOP, '/', "top" },
+	{ PATHSPEC_ICASE, '\0', "icase" },
+};
+
+/*
+ * Take an element of a pathspec and check for magic signatures.
+ * Append the result to the prefix.
+ *
+ * For now, we only parse the syntax and throw out anything other than
+ * "top" magic.
+ *
+ * NEEDSWORK: This needs to be rewritten when we start migrating
+ * get_pathspec() users to use the "struct pathspec" interface.  For
+ * example, a pathspec element may be marked as case-insensitive, but
+ * the prefix part must always match literally, and a single stupid
+ * string cannot express such a case.
+ */
+const char *prefix_pathspec(const char *prefix, int prefixlen, const char *elt)
+{
+	unsigned magic = 0;
+	const char *copyfrom = elt;
+	const char *retval;
+	int i, free_source = 0;
+
+	if (elt[0] != ':') {
+		; /* nothing to do */
+	} else if (elt[1] == '(') {
+		/* longhand */
+		const char *nextat;
+		for (copyfrom = elt + 2;
+		     *copyfrom && *copyfrom != ')';
+		     copyfrom = nextat) {
+			size_t len = strcspn(copyfrom, ",)");
+			if (copyfrom[len] == ')')
+				nextat = copyfrom + len;
+			else
+				nextat = copyfrom + len + 1;
+			if (!len)
+				continue;
+			for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(pathspec_magic); i++)
+				if (strlen(pathspec_magic[i].name) == len &&
+				    !strncmp(pathspec_magic[i].name, copyfrom, len)) {
+					magic |= pathspec_magic[i].bit;
+					break;
+				}
+			if (ARRAY_SIZE(pathspec_magic) <= i)
+				die("Invalid pathspec magic '%.*s' in '%s'",
+				    (int) len, copyfrom, elt);
+		}
+		if (*copyfrom == ')')
+			copyfrom++;
+	} else if (!elt[1]) {
+		/* Just ':' -- no element! */
+		return NULL;
+	} else {
+		/* shorthand */
+		for (copyfrom = elt + 1;
+		     *copyfrom && *copyfrom != ':';
+		     copyfrom++) {
+			char ch = *copyfrom;
+
+			if (!is_pathspec_magic(ch))
+				break;
+			for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(pathspec_magic); i++)
+				if (pathspec_magic[i].mnemonic == ch) {
+					magic |= pathspec_magic[i].bit;
+					break;
+				}
+			if (ARRAY_SIZE(pathspec_magic) <= i)
+				die("Unimplemented pathspec magic '%c' in '%s'",
+				    ch, elt);
+		}
+		if (*copyfrom == ':')
+			copyfrom++;
+	}
+
+	if (magic & PATHSPEC_ICASE) {
+		struct strbuf sb = STRBUF_INIT;
+		for (i = 0; copyfrom[i]; i++) {
+			int ch = copyfrom[i];
+			if (('a' <= ch && ch <= 'z') ||
+			    ('A' <= ch && ch <= 'Z')) {
+				strbuf_addf(&sb, "[%c%c]",
+					    tolower(ch), toupper(ch));
+			} else {
+				strbuf_addch(&sb, ch);
+			}
+		}
+		if (sb.len) {
+			free_source = 1;
+			copyfrom = strbuf_detach(&sb, NULL);
+		}
+	}
+
+	if (magic & PATHSPEC_FROMTOP)
+		retval = xstrdup(copyfrom);
+	else
+		retval = prefix_path(prefix, prefixlen, copyfrom);
+	if (free_source)
+		free((char *)copyfrom);
+	return retval;
+}
+
 const char **get_pathspec(const char *prefix, const char **pathspec)
 {
 	const char *entry = *pathspec;
@@ -147,8 +272,7 @@ const char **get_pathspec(const char *prefix, const char **pathspec)
 	dst = pathspec;
 	prefixlen = prefix ? strlen(prefix) : 0;
 	while (*src) {
-		const char *p = prefix_path(prefix, prefixlen, *src);
-		*(dst++) = p;
+		*(dst++) = prefix_pathspec(prefix, prefixlen, *src);
 		src++;
 	}
 	*dst = NULL;