diff --git a/Documentation/gitattributes.txt b/Documentation/gitattributes.txt
index 5a7f936429..e59b878293 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitattributes.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitattributes.txt
@@ -494,6 +494,8 @@ patterns are available:
 
 - `pascal` suitable for source code in the Pascal/Delphi language.
 
+- `perl` suitable for source code in the Perl language.
+
 - `php` suitable for source code in the PHP language.
 
 - `python` suitable for source code in the Python language.
diff --git a/t/t4018-diff-funcname.sh b/t/t4018-diff-funcname.sh
index 0a61b57b5f..3646930623 100755
--- a/t/t4018-diff-funcname.sh
+++ b/t/t4018-diff-funcname.sh
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ EOF
 
 sed 's/beer\\/beer,\\/' < Beer.java > Beer-correct.java
 
-builtin_patterns="bibtex cpp csharp fortran html java objc pascal php python ruby tex"
+builtin_patterns="bibtex cpp csharp fortran html java objc pascal perl php python ruby tex"
 for p in $builtin_patterns
 do
 	test_expect_success "builtin $p pattern compiles" '
diff --git a/userdiff.c b/userdiff.c
index 2d5453697a..fc2afe33a7 100644
--- a/userdiff.c
+++ b/userdiff.c
@@ -61,6 +61,21 @@ PATTERNS("pascal",
 	 "|[-+0-9.e]+|0[xXbB]?[0-9a-fA-F]+"
 	 "|<>|<=|>=|:=|\\.\\."
 	 "|[^[:space:]]|[\x80-\xff]+"),
+PATTERNS("perl",
+	 "^[ \t]*package .*;\n"
+	 "^[ \t]*sub .* \\{",
+	 /* -- */
+	 "[[:alpha:]_'][[:alnum:]_']*"
+	 "|0[xb]?[0-9a-fA-F_]*"
+	 /* taking care not to interpret 3..5 as (3.)(.5) */
+	 "|[0-9a-fA-F_]+(\\.[0-9a-fA-F_]+)?([eE][-+]?[0-9_]+)?"
+	 "|=>|-[rwxoRWXOezsfdlpSugkbctTBMAC>]|~~|::"
+	 "|&&=|\\|\\|=|//=|\\*\\*="
+	 "|&&|\\|\\||//|\\+\\+|--|\\*\\*|\\.\\.\\.?"
+	 "|[-+*/%.^&<>=!|]="
+	 "|=~|!~"
+	 "|<<|<>|<=>|>>"
+	 "|[^[:space:]]"),
 PATTERNS("php",
 	 "^[\t ]*(((public|protected|private|static)[\t ]+)*function.*)$\n"
 	 "^[\t ]*(class.*)$",