diff --git a/Documentation/git-svn.txt b/Documentation/git-svn.txt
index 7e17cade7f0d2d..5f9e65b0c4de11 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-svn.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-svn.txt
@@ -625,6 +625,9 @@ config key: svn.authorsfile
 	with the committer name as the first argument.  The program is
 	expected to return a single line of the form "Name <email>",
 	which will be treated as if included in the authors file.
++
+[verse]
+config key: svn.authorsProg
 
 -q::
 --quiet::
diff --git a/git-svn.perl b/git-svn.perl
index f609e54ce3b3d5..4d41d220a0da3a 100755
--- a/git-svn.perl
+++ b/git-svn.perl
@@ -339,7 +339,7 @@ sub term_init {
 			die "failed to open $ENV{GIT_DIR}: $!\n";
 		$ENV{GIT_DIR} = $1 if <$fh> =~ /^gitdir: (.+)$/;
 	}
-} else {
+} elsif ($cmd) {
 	my ($git_dir, $cdup);
 	git_cmd_try {
 		$git_dir = command_oneline([qw/rev-parse --git-dir/]);
@@ -356,7 +356,7 @@ sub term_init {
 
 my %opts = %{$cmd{$cmd}->[2]} if (defined $cmd);
 
-read_git_config(\%opts);
+read_git_config(\%opts) if $ENV{GIT_DIR};
 if ($cmd && ($cmd eq 'log' || $cmd eq 'blame')) {
 	Getopt::Long::Configure('pass_through');
 }
diff --git a/t/t9100-git-svn-basic.sh b/t/t9100-git-svn-basic.sh
index 28082b134fd54a..ab6593b910f171 100755
--- a/t/t9100-git-svn-basic.sh
+++ b/t/t9100-git-svn-basic.sh
@@ -19,6 +19,25 @@ case "$GIT_SVN_LC_ALL" in
 	;;
 esac
 
+deepdir=nothing-above
+ceiling=$PWD
+
+test_expect_success 'git svn --version works anywhere' '
+	mkdir -p "$deepdir" && (
+		export GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES="$ceiling" &&
+		cd "$deepdir" &&
+		git svn --version
+	)
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'git svn help works anywhere' '
+	mkdir -p "$deepdir" && (
+		export GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES="$ceiling" &&
+		cd "$deepdir" &&
+		git svn help
+	)
+'
+
 test_expect_success \
     'initialize git svn' '
 	mkdir import &&