diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index e8adeb09f1..e2f77a689c 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1434,7 +1434,6 @@ ifeq ($(uname_S),Darwin)
 		APPLE_COMMON_CRYPTO = YesPlease
 		COMPAT_CFLAGS += -DAPPLE_COMMON_CRYPTO
 	endif
-	NO_REGEX = YesPlease
 	PTHREAD_LIBS =
 endif
 
@@ -2979,6 +2978,7 @@ GIT-BUILD-OPTIONS: FORCE
 	@echo NO_PERL=\''$(subst ','\'',$(subst ','\'',$(NO_PERL)))'\' >>$@+
 	@echo NO_PTHREADS=\''$(subst ','\'',$(subst ','\'',$(NO_PTHREADS)))'\' >>$@+
 	@echo NO_PYTHON=\''$(subst ','\'',$(subst ','\'',$(NO_PYTHON)))'\' >>$@+
+	@echo NO_REGEX=\''$(subst ','\'',$(subst ','\'',$(NO_REGEX)))'\' >>$@+
 	@echo NO_UNIX_SOCKETS=\''$(subst ','\'',$(subst ','\'',$(NO_UNIX_SOCKETS)))'\' >>$@+
 	@echo PAGER_ENV=\''$(subst ','\'',$(subst ','\'',$(PAGER_ENV)))'\' >>$@+
 	@echo DC_SHA1=\''$(subst ','\'',$(subst ','\'',$(DC_SHA1)))'\' >>$@+
diff --git a/common-main.c b/common-main.c
index c531372f3f..0a22861f1c 100644
--- a/common-main.c
+++ b/common-main.c
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ int main(int argc, const char **argv)
 
 	git_resolve_executable_dir(argv[0]);
 
+	setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "");
 	git_setup_gettext();
 
 	initialize_the_repository();
diff --git a/gettext.c b/gettext.c
index bb5ba1fe7c..f139008d0a 100644
--- a/gettext.c
+++ b/gettext.c
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@
 #include "config.h"
 
 #ifndef NO_GETTEXT
-#	include <locale.h>
 #	include <libintl.h>
 #	ifdef GIT_WINDOWS_NATIVE
 
@@ -80,7 +79,6 @@ static int test_vsnprintf(const char *fmt, ...)
 
 static void init_gettext_charset(const char *domain)
 {
-	setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "");
 	charset = locale_charset();
 	bind_textdomain_codeset(domain, charset);
 
diff --git a/git-compat-util.h b/git-compat-util.h
index 36a25ae252..76d29e3e10 100644
--- a/git-compat-util.h
+++ b/git-compat-util.h
@@ -215,6 +215,7 @@ struct strbuf;
 #endif
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <limits.h>
+#include <locale.h>
 #ifdef NEEDS_SYS_PARAM_H
 #include <sys/param.h>
 #endif
diff --git a/t/t7810-grep.sh b/t/t7810-grep.sh
index 0f937990a0..8eded6ab27 100755
--- a/t/t7810-grep.sh
+++ b/t/t7810-grep.sh
@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@ test_invalid_grep_expression() {
 	'
 }
 
+LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 test-tool regex '^.$' '¿' &&
+  test_set_prereq MB_REGEX
+
 cat >hello.c <<EOF
 #include <assert.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
@@ -88,6 +91,10 @@ test_expect_success setup '
 		echo unusual >"\"unusual\" pathname" &&
 		echo unusual >"t/nested \"unusual\" pathname"
 	fi &&
+	if test_have_prereq MB_REGEX
+	then
+		echo "¿" >reverse-question-mark
+	fi &&
 	git add . &&
 	test_tick &&
 	git commit -m initial
@@ -569,6 +576,14 @@ do
 	'
 done
 
+test_expect_success MB_REGEX 'grep exactly one char in single-char multibyte file' '
+	LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 git grep "^.$" reverse-question-mark
+'
+
+test_expect_success MB_REGEX 'grep two chars in single-char multibyte file' '
+	LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 test_expect_code 1 git grep ".." reverse-question-mark
+'
+
 cat >expected <<EOF
 file
 EOF