diff --git a/builtin/grep.c b/builtin/grep.c
index 601f801158f097b302dcf6615016bb4cefbc0225..0667ffde84ad552ca1aa271cd49b46e59a91326b 100644
--- a/builtin/grep.c
+++ b/builtin/grep.c
@@ -904,9 +904,9 @@ int cmd_grep(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		OPT_END()
 	};
 
-	init_grep_defaults();
+	init_grep_defaults(the_repository);
 	git_config(grep_cmd_config, NULL);
-	grep_init(&opt, prefix);
+	grep_init(&opt, the_repository, prefix);
 
 	/*
 	 * If there is no -- then the paths must exist in the working
diff --git a/builtin/log.c b/builtin/log.c
index f32a07f6a9a535bd0f68d8a357189dadf0a13423..b62082472cfe4331632b4ae12b390ada5e12da3a 100644
--- a/builtin/log.c
+++ b/builtin/log.c
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ static int log_line_range_callback(const struct option *option, const char *arg,
 
 static void init_log_defaults(void)
 {
-	init_grep_defaults();
+	init_grep_defaults(the_repository);
 	init_diff_ui_defaults();
 
 	decoration_style = auto_decoration_style();
diff --git a/grep.c b/grep.c
index e146ff20bb60b3e3126d40197cf3378afe616f55..6c0eede3a1f67c6b85e73a437bc8743f9d05719a 100644
--- a/grep.c
+++ b/grep.c
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ static void color_set(char *dst, const char *color_bytes)
  * We could let the compiler do this, but without C99 initializers
  * the code gets unwieldy and unreadable, so...
  */
-void init_grep_defaults(void)
+void init_grep_defaults(struct repository *repo)
 {
 	struct grep_opt *opt = &grep_defaults;
 	static int run_once;
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ void init_grep_defaults(void)
 	run_once++;
 
 	memset(opt, 0, sizeof(*opt));
+	opt->repo = repo;
 	opt->relative = 1;
 	opt->pathname = 1;
 	opt->max_depth = -1;
@@ -149,12 +150,13 @@ int grep_config(const char *var, const char *value, void *cb)
  * default values from the template we read the configuration
  * information in an earlier call to git_config(grep_config).
  */
-void grep_init(struct grep_opt *opt, const char *prefix)
+void grep_init(struct grep_opt *opt, struct repository *repo, const char *prefix)
 {
 	struct grep_opt *def = &grep_defaults;
 	int i;
 
 	memset(opt, 0, sizeof(*opt));
+	opt->repo = repo;
 	opt->prefix = prefix;
 	opt->prefix_length = (prefix && *prefix) ? strlen(prefix) : 0;
 	opt->pattern_tail = &opt->pattern_list;
@@ -1708,7 +1710,8 @@ static int look_ahead(struct grep_opt *opt,
 	return 0;
 }
 
-static int fill_textconv_grep(struct userdiff_driver *driver,
+static int fill_textconv_grep(struct repository *r,
+			      struct userdiff_driver *driver,
 			      struct grep_source *gs)
 {
 	struct diff_filespec *df;
@@ -1741,7 +1744,7 @@ static int fill_textconv_grep(struct userdiff_driver *driver,
 	 * structure.
 	 */
 	grep_read_lock();
-	size = fill_textconv(the_repository, driver, df, &buf);
+	size = fill_textconv(r, driver, df, &buf);
 	grep_read_unlock();
 	free_filespec(df);
 
@@ -1837,7 +1840,7 @@ static int grep_source_1(struct grep_opt *opt, struct grep_source *gs, int colle
 
 	try_lookahead = should_lookahead(opt);
 
-	if (fill_textconv_grep(textconv, gs) < 0)
+	if (fill_textconv_grep(opt->repo, textconv, gs) < 0)
 		return 0;
 
 	bol = gs->buf;
diff --git a/grep.h b/grep.h
index 0ba62a11c5cc2767b15b52aca20a0ea5b00870b8..36511839718e992fc568863b9e8f967f105e2506 100644
--- a/grep.h
+++ b/grep.h
@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@ typedef int pcre2_jit_stack;
 #include "thread-utils.h"
 #include "userdiff.h"
 
+struct repository;
+
 enum grep_pat_token {
 	GREP_PATTERN,
 	GREP_PATTERN_HEAD,
@@ -136,6 +138,7 @@ struct grep_opt {
 	struct grep_pat *header_list;
 	struct grep_pat **header_tail;
 	struct grep_expr *pattern_expression;
+	struct repository *repo;
 	const char *prefix;
 	int prefix_length;
 	regex_t regexp;
@@ -183,9 +186,9 @@ struct grep_opt {
 	void *output_priv;
 };
 
-extern void init_grep_defaults(void);
+extern void init_grep_defaults(struct repository *);
 extern int grep_config(const char *var, const char *value, void *);
-extern void grep_init(struct grep_opt *, const char *prefix);
+extern void grep_init(struct grep_opt *, struct repository *repo, const char *prefix);
 void grep_commit_pattern_type(enum grep_pattern_type, struct grep_opt *opt);
 
 extern void append_grep_pat(struct grep_opt *opt, const char *pat, size_t patlen, const char *origin, int no, enum grep_pat_token t);
diff --git a/revision.c b/revision.c
index de4dce600d00282655907e9014228791a352f813..3457064ff3cd59d075ac537ab0651b86f2232be3 100644
--- a/revision.c
+++ b/revision.c
@@ -1464,8 +1464,8 @@ void init_revisions(struct rev_info *revs, const char *prefix)
 	revs->commit_format = CMIT_FMT_DEFAULT;
 	revs->expand_tabs_in_log_default = 8;
 
-	init_grep_defaults();
-	grep_init(&revs->grep_filter, prefix);
+	init_grep_defaults(the_repository);
+	grep_init(&revs->grep_filter, the_repository, prefix);
 	revs->grep_filter.status_only = 1;
 
 	diff_setup(&revs->diffopt);