diff --git a/Documentation/git-help.txt b/Documentation/git-help.txt
index f414583fc4..d9b9c34b3a 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-help.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-help.txt
@@ -112,7 +112,9 @@ For example, this configuration:
 will try to use konqueror first. But this may fail (for example if
 DISPLAY is not set) and in that case emacs' woman mode will be tried.
 
-If everything fails the 'man' program will be tried anyway.
+If everything fails, or if no viewer is configured, the viewer specified
+in the GIT_MAN_VIEWER environment variable will be tried.  If that
+fails too, the 'man' program will be tried anyway.
 
 man.<tool>.path
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/builtin-help.c b/builtin-help.c
index 721038e4f5..64207cbfe9 100644
--- a/builtin-help.c
+++ b/builtin-help.c
@@ -361,12 +361,15 @@ static void show_man_page(const char *git_cmd)
 {
 	struct man_viewer_list *viewer;
 	const char *page = cmd_to_page(git_cmd);
+	const char *fallback = getenv("GIT_MAN_VIEWER");
 
 	setup_man_path();
 	for (viewer = man_viewer_list; viewer; viewer = viewer->next)
 	{
 		exec_viewer(viewer->name, page); /* will return when unable */
 	}
+	if (fallback)
+		exec_viewer(fallback, page);
 	exec_viewer("man", page);
 	die("no man viewer handled the request");
 }