diff --git a/Documentation/Makefile b/Documentation/Makefile
index 2ab65561af628820f862a48ac05246cc9e773ee8..4ae9ba5c86e038fff94277c0d1a767b93634ec53 100644
--- a/Documentation/Makefile
+++ b/Documentation/Makefile
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ MAN7_TXT += gitworkflows.txt
 MAN_TXT = $(MAN1_TXT) $(MAN5_TXT) $(MAN7_TXT)
 MAN_XML = $(patsubst %.txt,%.xml,$(MAN_TXT))
 MAN_HTML = $(patsubst %.txt,%.html,$(MAN_TXT))
+GIT_MAN_REF = master
 
 OBSOLETE_HTML += everyday.html
 OBSOLETE_HTML += git-remote-helpers.html
@@ -437,14 +438,14 @@ require-manrepo::
 	then echo "git-manpages repository must exist at $(MAN_REPO)"; exit 1; fi
 
 quick-install-man: require-manrepo
-	'$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)' ./install-doc-quick.sh $(MAN_REPO) $(DESTDIR)$(mandir)
+	'$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)' ./install-doc-quick.sh $(MAN_REPO) $(DESTDIR)$(mandir) $(GIT_MAN_REF)
 
 require-htmlrepo::
 	@if test ! -d $(HTML_REPO); \
 	then echo "git-htmldocs repository must exist at $(HTML_REPO)"; exit 1; fi
 
 quick-install-html: require-htmlrepo
-	'$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)' ./install-doc-quick.sh $(HTML_REPO) $(DESTDIR)$(htmldir)
+	'$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)' ./install-doc-quick.sh $(HTML_REPO) $(DESTDIR)$(htmldir) $(GIT_MAN_REF)
 
 print-man1:
 	@for i in $(MAN1_TXT); do echo $$i; done
diff --git a/Documentation/install-doc-quick.sh b/Documentation/install-doc-quick.sh
index 327f69bcf5a20c7cf33a712b08bed9d4ccfe9d2e..17231d8e5959a9b16753b4c4a617e8c2decf5171 100755
--- a/Documentation/install-doc-quick.sh
+++ b/Documentation/install-doc-quick.sh
@@ -3,11 +3,12 @@
 
 repository=${1?repository}
 destdir=${2?destination}
+GIT_MAN_REF=${3?master}
 
-head=master GIT_DIR=
+GIT_DIR=
 for d in "$repository/.git" "$repository"
 do
-	if GIT_DIR="$d" git rev-parse refs/heads/master >/dev/null 2>&1
+	if GIT_DIR="$d" git rev-parse "$GIT_MAN_REF" >/dev/null 2>&1
 	then
 		GIT_DIR="$d"
 		export GIT_DIR
@@ -27,12 +28,12 @@ export GIT_INDEX_FILE GIT_WORK_TREE
 rm -f "$GIT_INDEX_FILE"
 trap 'rm -f "$GIT_INDEX_FILE"' 0
 
-git read-tree $head
+git read-tree "$GIT_MAN_REF"
 git checkout-index -a -f --prefix="$destdir"/
 
 if test -n "$GZ"
 then
-	git ls-tree -r --name-only $head |
+	git ls-tree -r --name-only "$GIT_MAN_REF" |
 	xargs printf "$destdir/%s\n" |
 	xargs gzip -f
 fi