diff --git a/Documentation/config/core.txt b/Documentation/config/core.txt
index c04f62a54a154c..2d3f790a90fb67 100644
--- a/Documentation/config/core.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config/core.txt
@@ -628,3 +628,7 @@ core.abbrev::
 	If set to "no", no abbreviation is made and the object names
 	are shown in their full length.
 	The minimum length is 4.
+
+core.shell::
+	Set the absolute path to the executable to use as a POSIX shell;
+	This will also set/override the environment variable `SHELL`.
diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index aa647b367b0fab..5d9cc59a707e0a 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -1277,6 +1277,10 @@ static char *path_lookup(const char *cmd, int exe_only)
 	if (strpbrk(cmd, "/\\"))
 		return xstrdup(cmd);
 
+	if (!strcmp(cmd, "sh") &&
+	    (prog = xstrdup_or_null(get_shell_path(NULL))))
+		return prog;
+
 	path = mingw_getenv("PATH");
 	if (!path)
 		return NULL;
@@ -1463,6 +1467,12 @@ static int is_msys2_sh(const char *cmd)
 		if (ret >= 0)
 			return ret;
 
+		if (get_shell_path(NULL)) {
+			/* Assume an overridden shell is not MSYS2 */
+			ret = 0;
+			return ret;
+		}
+
 		p = path_lookup(cmd, 0);
 		if (!p)
 			ret = 0;
diff --git a/help.c b/help.c
index 3c3bdec21356d9..4690f7241df946 100644
--- a/help.c
+++ b/help.c
@@ -662,7 +662,7 @@ void get_version_info(struct strbuf *buf, int show_build_options)
 			strbuf_addstr(buf, "no commit associated with this build\n");
 		strbuf_addf(buf, "sizeof-long: %d\n", (int)sizeof(long));
 		strbuf_addf(buf, "sizeof-size_t: %d\n", (int)sizeof(size_t));
-		strbuf_addf(buf, "shell-path: %s\n", SHELL_PATH);
+		strbuf_addf(buf, "shell-path: %s\n", get_shell_path(SHELL_PATH));
 		/* NEEDSWORK: also save and output GIT-BUILD_OPTIONS? */
 	}
 }
diff --git a/run-command.c b/run-command.c
index be6bc128cd9df2..38cb5b112cb58c 100644
--- a/run-command.c
+++ b/run-command.c
@@ -9,6 +9,20 @@
 #include "quote.h"
 #include "config.h"
 
+const char *get_shell_path(const char *fallback)
+{
+	static const char *shell;
+	static int initialized;
+
+	if (!initialized) {
+		if (!git_config_get_pathname("core.shell", &shell))
+			setenv("SHELL", shell, 1);
+		initialized = 1;
+	}
+
+	return shell ? shell : fallback;
+}
+
 void child_process_init(struct child_process *child)
 {
 	memset(child, 0, sizeof(*child));
@@ -271,9 +285,9 @@ static const char **prepare_shell_cmd(struct strvec *out, const char **argv)
 
 	if (strcspn(argv[0], "|&;<>()$`\\\"' \t\n*?[#~=%") != strlen(argv[0])) {
 #ifndef GIT_WINDOWS_NATIVE
-		strvec_push(out, SHELL_PATH);
+		strvec_push(out, get_shell_path(SHELL_PATH));
 #else
-		strvec_push(out, "sh");
+		strvec_push(out, get_shell_path("sh"));
 #endif
 		strvec_push(out, "-c");
 
@@ -411,7 +425,7 @@ static int prepare_cmd(struct strvec *out, const struct child_process *cmd)
 	 * Add SHELL_PATH so in the event exec fails with ENOEXEC we can
 	 * attempt to interpret the command with 'sh'.
 	 */
-	strvec_push(out, SHELL_PATH);
+	strvec_push(out, get_shell_path(SHELL_PATH));
 
 	if (cmd->git_cmd) {
 		prepare_git_cmd(out, cmd->argv);
diff --git a/run-command.h b/run-command.h
index d08414a92e734c..4f10b63184dfad 100644
--- a/run-command.h
+++ b/run-command.h
@@ -483,4 +483,9 @@ int run_processes_parallel_tr2(int n, get_next_task_fn, start_failure_fn,
 			       task_finished_fn, void *pp_cb,
 			       const char *tr2_category, const char *tr2_label);
 
+/*
+ * Get the path of the POSIX shell to use in `start_command()`.
+ */
+const char *get_shell_path(const char *fallback);
+
 #endif
diff --git a/t/t0061-run-command.sh b/t/t0061-run-command.sh
index 7d599675e35a75..8f7618476db183 100755
--- a/t/t0061-run-command.sh
+++ b/t/t0061-run-command.sh
@@ -233,4 +233,18 @@ test_expect_success MINGW 'can spawn .bat with argv[0] containing spaces' '
 	grep "git-upload-pack" out
 '
 
+SQ="'"
+test_expect_success 'core.shell' '
+	test_config_global core.shell "$GIT_EXEC_PATH/git$X" &&
+	test_must_fail git -c alias.eq="!a.b=c" eq 2>actual &&
+	grep "${SQ}a.b=c${SQ} is not a git command" actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success MINGW 'core.shell executes scripts' '
+	test_config_global core.shell "$GIT_EXEC_PATH/git$X" &&
+	echo "#!/bin/sh" >script &&
+	test_must_fail git -c alias.s="!./script" s 2>actual &&
+	grep "${SQ}./script${SQ} is not a git command" actual
+'
+
 test_done