diff --git a/builtin/help.c b/builtin/help.c
index b3c818ee01..e78c135e01 100644
--- a/builtin/help.c
+++ b/builtin/help.c
@@ -321,16 +321,18 @@ static void setup_man_path(void)
 {
 	struct strbuf new_path = STRBUF_INIT;
 	const char *old_path = getenv("MANPATH");
+	char *git_man_path = system_path(GIT_MAN_PATH);
 
 	/* We should always put ':' after our path. If there is no
 	 * old_path, the ':' at the end will let 'man' to try
 	 * system-wide paths after ours to find the manual page. If
 	 * there is old_path, we need ':' as delimiter. */
-	strbuf_addstr(&new_path, system_path(GIT_MAN_PATH));
+	strbuf_addstr(&new_path, git_man_path);
 	strbuf_addch(&new_path, ':');
 	if (old_path)
 		strbuf_addstr(&new_path, old_path);
 
+	free(git_man_path);
 	setenv("MANPATH", new_path.buf, 1);
 
 	strbuf_release(&new_path);
@@ -380,8 +382,10 @@ static void show_info_page(const char *git_cmd)
 static void get_html_page_path(struct strbuf *page_path, const char *page)
 {
 	struct stat st;
+	char *to_free = NULL;
+
 	if (!html_path)
-		html_path = system_path(GIT_HTML_PATH);
+		html_path = to_free = system_path(GIT_HTML_PATH);
 
 	/* Check that we have a git documentation directory. */
 	if (!strstr(html_path, "://")) {
@@ -392,6 +396,7 @@ static void get_html_page_path(struct strbuf *page_path, const char *page)
 
 	strbuf_init(page_path, 0);
 	strbuf_addf(page_path, "%s/%s.html", html_path, page);
+	free(to_free);
 }
 
 /*
diff --git a/builtin/init-db.c b/builtin/init-db.c
index 2619ca5881..9966522b4a 100644
--- a/builtin/init-db.c
+++ b/builtin/init-db.c
@@ -119,15 +119,18 @@ static void copy_templates(const char *template_dir)
 	DIR *dir;
 	const char *git_dir = get_git_dir();
 	int len = strlen(git_dir);
+	char *to_free = NULL;
 
 	if (!template_dir)
 		template_dir = getenv(TEMPLATE_DIR_ENVIRONMENT);
 	if (!template_dir)
 		template_dir = init_db_template_dir;
 	if (!template_dir)
-		template_dir = system_path(DEFAULT_GIT_TEMPLATE_DIR);
-	if (!template_dir[0])
+		template_dir = to_free = system_path(DEFAULT_GIT_TEMPLATE_DIR);
+	if (!template_dir[0]) {
+		free(to_free);
 		return;
+	}
 	template_len = strlen(template_dir);
 	if (PATH_MAX <= (template_len+strlen("/config")))
 		die(_("insanely long template path %s"), template_dir);
@@ -139,7 +142,7 @@ static void copy_templates(const char *template_dir)
 	dir = opendir(template_path);
 	if (!dir) {
 		warning(_("templates not found %s"), template_dir);
-		return;
+		goto free_return;
 	}
 
 	/* Make sure that template is from the correct vintage */
@@ -155,8 +158,7 @@ static void copy_templates(const char *template_dir)
 			"a wrong format version %d from '%s'"),
 			repository_format_version,
 			template_dir);
-		closedir(dir);
-		return;
+		goto close_free_return;
 	}
 
 	memcpy(path, git_dir, len);
@@ -166,7 +168,10 @@ static void copy_templates(const char *template_dir)
 	copy_templates_1(path, len,
 			 template_path, template_len,
 			 dir);
+close_free_return:
 	closedir(dir);
+free_return:
+	free(to_free);
 }
 
 static int git_init_db_config(const char *k, const char *v, void *cb)
diff --git a/exec_cmd.c b/exec_cmd.c
index 698e7526c4..8ab37b5f74 100644
--- a/exec_cmd.c
+++ b/exec_cmd.c
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 static const char *argv_exec_path;
 static const char *argv0_path;
 
-const char *system_path(const char *path)
+char *system_path(const char *path)
 {
 #ifdef RUNTIME_PREFIX
 	static const char *prefix;
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ const char *system_path(const char *path)
 	struct strbuf d = STRBUF_INIT;
 
 	if (is_absolute_path(path))
-		return path;
+		return xstrdup(path);
 
 #ifdef RUNTIME_PREFIX
 	assert(argv0_path);
@@ -34,8 +34,7 @@ const char *system_path(const char *path)
 #endif
 
 	strbuf_addf(&d, "%s/%s", prefix, path);
-	path = strbuf_detach(&d, NULL);
-	return path;
+	return strbuf_detach(&d, NULL);
 }
 
 const char *git_extract_argv0_path(const char *argv0)
diff --git a/exec_cmd.h b/exec_cmd.h
index e4c9702f02..93b0c02529 100644
--- a/exec_cmd.h
+++ b/exec_cmd.h
@@ -9,6 +9,6 @@ extern const char **prepare_git_cmd(const char **argv);
 extern int execv_git_cmd(const char **argv); /* NULL terminated */
 LAST_ARG_MUST_BE_NULL
 extern int execl_git_cmd(const char *cmd, ...);
-extern const char *system_path(const char *path);
+extern char *system_path(const char *path);
 
 #endif /* GIT_EXEC_CMD_H */