diff --git a/environment.c b/environment.c
index 0026eb2274..2764d8f481 100644
--- a/environment.c
+++ b/environment.c
@@ -647,22 +647,6 @@ static int git_default_push_config(const char *var, const char *value)
 	return 0;
 }
 
-static int git_default_mailmap_config(const char *var, const char *value)
-{
-	if (!strcmp(var, "mailmap.file")) {
-		FREE_AND_NULL(git_mailmap_file);
-		return git_config_pathname(&git_mailmap_file, var, value);
-	}
-
-	if (!strcmp(var, "mailmap.blob")) {
-		FREE_AND_NULL(git_mailmap_blob);
-		return git_config_string(&git_mailmap_blob, var, value);
-	}
-
-	/* Add other config variables here and to Documentation/config.adoc. */
-	return 0;
-}
-
 static int git_default_attr_config(const char *var, const char *value)
 {
 	if (!strcmp(var, "attr.tree")) {
@@ -697,9 +681,6 @@ int git_default_config(const char *var, const char *value,
 	if (starts_with(var, "push."))
 		return git_default_push_config(var, value);
 
-	if (starts_with(var, "mailmap."))
-		return git_default_mailmap_config(var, value);
-
 	if (starts_with(var, "attr."))
 		return git_default_attr_config(var, value);
 
diff --git a/mailmap.c b/mailmap.c
index cf70956675..3b2691781d 100644
--- a/mailmap.c
+++ b/mailmap.c
@@ -7,9 +7,7 @@
 #include "object-name.h"
 #include "odb.h"
 #include "setup.h"
-
-char *git_mailmap_file;
-char *git_mailmap_blob;
+#include "config.h"
 
 struct mailmap_info {
 	char *name;
@@ -213,20 +211,29 @@ int read_mailmap_blob(struct repository *repo, struct string_list *map,
 int read_mailmap(struct repository *repo, struct string_list *map)
 {
 	int err = 0;
+	char *mailmap_file = NULL, *mailmap_blob = NULL;
+
+	repo_config_get_pathname(repo, "mailmap.file", &mailmap_file);
+	repo_config_get_string(repo, "mailmap.blob", &mailmap_blob);
 
 	map->strdup_strings = 1;
 	map->cmp = namemap_cmp;
 
-	if (!git_mailmap_blob && is_bare_repository())
-		git_mailmap_blob = xstrdup("HEAD:.mailmap");
+	if (!mailmap_blob && is_bare_repository())
+		mailmap_blob = xstrdup("HEAD:.mailmap");
 
 	if (!startup_info->have_repository || !is_bare_repository())
 		err |= read_mailmap_file(map, ".mailmap",
 					 startup_info->have_repository ?
 					 MAILMAP_NOFOLLOW : 0);
 	if (startup_info->have_repository)
-		err |= read_mailmap_blob(repo, map, git_mailmap_blob);
-	err |= read_mailmap_file(map, git_mailmap_file, 0);
+		err |= read_mailmap_blob(repo, map, mailmap_blob);
+
+	err |= read_mailmap_file(map, mailmap_file, 0);
+
+	free(mailmap_file);
+	free(mailmap_blob);
+
 	return err;
 }
 
diff --git a/mailmap.h b/mailmap.h
index fda329d715..6866cb6f1d 100644
--- a/mailmap.h
+++ b/mailmap.h
@@ -4,9 +4,6 @@
 struct repository;
 struct string_list;
 
-extern char *git_mailmap_file;
-extern char *git_mailmap_blob;
-
 /* Flags for read_mailmap_file() */
 #define MAILMAP_NOFOLLOW (1<<0)