diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 9023eff0bb..ea59a15989 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -550,10 +550,12 @@ ifneq (,$(findstring MINGW,$(uname_S)))
 	NO_C99_FORMAT = YesPlease
 	NO_STRTOUMAX = YesPlease
 	NO_MKDTEMP = YesPlease
+	SNPRINTF_RETURNS_BOGUS = YesPlease
 	NO_SVN_TESTS = YesPlease
 	NO_PERL_MAKEMAKER = YesPlease
 	NO_POSIX_ONLY_PROGRAMS = YesPlease
 	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -D__USE_MINGW_ACCESS -DNOGDI -Icompat
+	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -DSNPRINTF_SIZE_CORR=1
 	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -DSTRIP_EXTENSION=\".exe\"
 	COMPAT_OBJS += compat/mingw.o compat/fnmatch.o compat/regex.o
 	EXTLIBS += -lws2_32
diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 6733727380..7c8fd0e158 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -847,40 +847,6 @@ int mingw_rename(const char *pold, const char *pnew)
 	return -1;
 }
 
-#undef vsnprintf
-/* Note that the size parameter specifies the available space, i.e.
- * includes the trailing NUL byte; but Windows's vsnprintf expects the
- * number of characters to write without the trailing NUL.
- */
-
-/* This is out of line because it uses alloca() behind the scenes,
- * which must not be called in a loop (alloca() reclaims the allocations
- * only at function exit).
- */
-static int try_vsnprintf(size_t size, const char *fmt, va_list args)
-{
-	char buf[size];	/* gcc-ism */
-	return vsnprintf(buf, size-1, fmt, args);
-}
-
-int mingw_vsnprintf(char *buf, size_t size, const char *fmt, va_list args)
-{
-	int len;
-	if (size > 0) {
-		len = vsnprintf(buf, size-1, fmt, args);
-		if (len >= 0)
-			return len;
-	}
-	/* ouch, buffer too small; need to compute the size */
-	if (size < 250)
-		size = 250;
-	do {
-		size *= 4;
-		len = try_vsnprintf(size, fmt, args);
-	} while (len < 0);
-	return len;
-}
-
 struct passwd *getpwuid(int uid)
 {
 	static char user_name[100];
diff --git a/compat/mingw.h b/compat/mingw.h
index abac3f2caf..c7db345d58 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.h
+++ b/compat/mingw.h
@@ -174,9 +174,6 @@ int mingw_fstat(int fd, struct mingw_stat *buf);
 static inline int mingw_stat(const char *file_name, struct mingw_stat *buf)
 { return mingw_lstat(file_name, buf); }
 
-int mingw_vsnprintf(char *buf, size_t size, const char *fmt, va_list args);
-#define vsnprintf mingw_vsnprintf
-
 pid_t mingw_spawnvpe(const char *cmd, const char **argv, char **env);
 void mingw_execvp(const char *cmd, char *const *argv);
 #define execvp mingw_execvp
diff --git a/compat/snprintf.c b/compat/snprintf.c
index dbfc2d6b6e..480b66f94e 100644
--- a/compat/snprintf.c
+++ b/compat/snprintf.c
@@ -1,12 +1,21 @@
 #include "../git-compat-util.h"
 
+/*
+ * The size parameter specifies the available space, i.e. includes
+ * the trailing NUL byte; but Windows's vsnprintf expects the
+ * number of characters to write without the trailing NUL.
+ */
+#ifndef SNPRINTF_SIZE_CORR
+#define SNPRINTF_SIZE_CORR 0
+#endif
+
 #undef vsnprintf
 int git_vsnprintf(char *str, size_t maxsize, const char *format, va_list ap)
 {
 	char *s;
 	int ret;
 
-	ret = vsnprintf(str, maxsize, format, ap);
+	ret = vsnprintf(str, maxsize-SNPRINTF_SIZE_CORR, format, ap);
 	if (ret != -1)
 		return ret;
 
@@ -20,7 +29,7 @@ int git_vsnprintf(char *str, size_t maxsize, const char *format, va_list ap)
 		if (! str)
 			break;
 		s = str;
-		ret = vsnprintf(str, maxsize, format, ap);
+		ret = vsnprintf(str, maxsize-SNPRINTF_SIZE_CORR, format, ap);
 	}
 	free(s);
 	return ret;