diff --git a/connect.c b/connect.c
index 3a12562146..20054e4d0f 100644
--- a/connect.c
+++ b/connect.c
@@ -502,12 +502,18 @@ struct child_process *git_connect(int fd[2], const char *url_orig,
 		c = ':';
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * Don't do destructive transforms with git:// as that
+	 * protocol code does '[]' dewrapping of its own.
+	 */
 	if (host[0] == '[') {
 		end = strchr(host + 1, ']');
 		if (end) {
-			*end = 0;
+			if (protocol != PROTO_GIT) {
+				*end = 0;
+				host++;
+			}
 			end++;
-			host++;
 		} else
 			end = host;
 	} else
diff --git a/daemon.c b/daemon.c
index 360635eb1c..6c2bd97713 100644
--- a/daemon.c
+++ b/daemon.c
@@ -399,6 +399,33 @@ static char *xstrdup_tolower(const char *str)
 	return dup;
 }
 
+static void parse_host_and_port(char *hostport, char **host,
+	char **port)
+{
+	if (*hostport == '[') {
+		char *end;
+
+		end = strchr(hostport, ']');
+		if (!end)
+			die("Invalid reqeuest ('[' without ']')");
+		*end = '\0';
+		*host = hostport + 1;
+		if (!end[1])
+			*port = NULL;
+		else if (end[1] == ':')
+			*port = end + 2;
+		else
+			die("Garbage after end of host part");
+	} else {
+		*host = hostport;
+		*port = strrchr(hostport, ':');
+		if (*port) {
+			*port = '\0';
+			++*port;
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 /*
  * Read the host as supplied by the client connection.
  */
@@ -415,11 +442,10 @@ static void parse_host_arg(char *extra_args, int buflen)
 			vallen = strlen(val) + 1;
 			if (*val) {
 				/* Split <host>:<port> at colon. */
-				char *host = val;
-				char *port = strrchr(host, ':');
+				char *host;
+				char *port;
+				parse_host_and_port(val, &host, &port);
 				if (port) {
-					*port = 0;
-					port++;
 					free(tcp_port);
 					tcp_port = xstrdup(port);
 				}