diff --git a/builtin-check-ref-format.c b/builtin-check-ref-format.c
index 0a576afd0e..b106c65d80 100644
--- a/builtin-check-ref-format.c
+++ b/builtin-check-ref-format.c
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@
 #include "builtin.h"
 #include "strbuf.h"
 
+static const char builtin_check_ref_format_usage[] =
+"git check-ref-format [--print] <refname>\n"
+"   or: git check-ref-format --branch <branchname-shorthand>";
+
 /*
  * Replace each run of adjacent slashes in src with a single slash,
  * and write the result to dst.
@@ -52,6 +56,6 @@ int cmd_check_ref_format(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		exit(0);
 	}
 	if (argc != 2)
-		usage("git check-ref-format refname");
+		usage(builtin_check_ref_format_usage);
 	return !!check_ref_format(argv[1]);
 }
diff --git a/builtin-merge.c b/builtin-merge.c
index c69a3051f3..18571387f1 100644
--- a/builtin-merge.c
+++ b/builtin-merge.c
@@ -843,7 +843,6 @@ int cmd_merge(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	const char *best_strategy = NULL, *wt_strategy = NULL;
 	struct commit_list **remotes = &remoteheads;
 
-	setup_work_tree();
 	if (file_exists(git_path("MERGE_HEAD")))
 		die("You have not concluded your merge. (MERGE_HEAD exists)");
 	if (read_cache_unmerged())
diff --git a/http-fetch.c b/http-fetch.c
index e8f44babd9..88f7dc8845 100644
--- a/http-fetch.c
+++ b/http-fetch.c
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #include "cache.h"
+#include "exec_cmd.h"
 #include "walker.h"
 
 int main(int argc, const char **argv)
@@ -19,8 +20,8 @@ int main(int argc, const char **argv)
 	int get_verbosely = 0;
 	int get_recover = 0;
 
+	git_extract_argv0_path(argv[0]);
 	prefix = setup_git_directory();
-
 	git_config(git_default_config, NULL);
 
 	while (arg < argc && argv[arg][0] == '-') {