diff --git a/diffcore-rename.c b/diffcore-rename.c
index 9ca0eaec70b6e973af8b1aec19a8f59f40384bf9..245e999fe5c6e9da62303423570d07aae5a88897 100644
--- a/diffcore-rename.c
+++ b/diffcore-rename.c
@@ -392,6 +392,8 @@ static int too_many_rename_candidates(int num_create,
 	 *
 	 *    num_create * num_src > rename_limit * rename_limit
 	 */
+	if (rename_limit <= 0)
+		rename_limit = 32767;
 	if ((num_create <= rename_limit || num_src <= rename_limit) &&
 	    ((uint64_t)num_create * (uint64_t)num_src
 	     <= (uint64_t)rename_limit * (uint64_t)rename_limit))
diff --git a/t/t4001-diff-rename.sh b/t/t4001-diff-rename.sh
index 0d1fa45d25e59ea100864a76b105b149c6dfcb85..eadf4f62444350c711a313d2161c9fa17c7aa405 100755
--- a/t/t4001-diff-rename.sh
+++ b/t/t4001-diff-rename.sh
@@ -230,4 +230,19 @@ test_expect_success 'rename pretty print common prefix and suffix overlap' '
 	test_i18ngrep " d/f/{ => f}/e " output
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'diff-tree -l0 defaults to a big rename limit, not zero' '
+	test_write_lines line1 line2 line3 >myfile &&
+	git add myfile &&
+	git commit -m x &&
+
+	test_write_lines line1 line2 line4 >myotherfile &&
+	git rm myfile &&
+	git add myotherfile &&
+	git commit -m x &&
+
+	git diff-tree -M -l0 HEAD HEAD^ >actual &&
+	# Verify that a rename from myotherfile to myfile was detected
+	grep "myotherfile.*myfile" actual
+'
+
 test_done