diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index 92f851e797ca820f6f6126391eafee0d4eec7e26..630e7ca0c9ff2d7c7ac9c6b5cd66d1cb060ae9ef 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -1578,7 +1578,9 @@ remote.<name>.uploadpack::
 
 remote.<name>.tagopt::
 	Setting this value to \--no-tags disables automatic tag following when
-	fetching from remote <name>
+	fetching from remote <name>. Setting it to \--tags will fetch every
+	tag from remote <name>, even if they are not reachable from remote
+	branch heads.
 
 remote.<name>.vcs::
 	Setting this to a value <vcs> will cause git to interact with
diff --git a/contrib/examples/git-fetch.sh b/contrib/examples/git-fetch.sh
index e44af2c86d8e7e44bc79aafcc8ccef3806804720..a314273bd51a865d9d5fc5cd899a51ffa70388a5 100755
--- a/contrib/examples/git-fetch.sh
+++ b/contrib/examples/git-fetch.sh
@@ -127,10 +127,12 @@ then
 	orig_head=$(git rev-parse --verify HEAD 2>/dev/null)
 fi
 
-# Allow --notags from remote.$1.tagopt
+# Allow --tags/--notags from remote.$1.tagopt
 case "$tags$no_tags" in
 '')
 	case "$(git config --get "remote.$1.tagopt")" in
+	--tags)
+		tags=t ;;
 	--no-tags)
 		no_tags=t ;;
 	esac
diff --git a/remote.c b/remote.c
index c70181cdc621b27ed02aba17b3e4f7ab64518e9f..0f073e0b5f9f08510af3a9e0ab5aed106475b30f 100644
--- a/remote.c
+++ b/remote.c
@@ -443,6 +443,8 @@ static int handle_config(const char *key, const char *value, void *cb)
 	} else if (!strcmp(subkey, ".tagopt")) {
 		if (!strcmp(value, "--no-tags"))
 			remote->fetch_tags = -1;
+		else if (!strcmp(value, "--tags"))
+			remote->fetch_tags = 2;
 	} else if (!strcmp(subkey, ".proxy")) {
 		return git_config_string((const char **)&remote->http_proxy,
 					 key, value);