diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 8c3c724a7f..ce0cfe2a48 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1696,10 +1696,10 @@ $(BUILT_INS): git$X
 	ln -s $< $@ 2>/dev/null || \
 	cp $< $@
 
-common-cmds.h: generate-cmdlist.perl command-list.txt
+common-cmds.h: generate-cmdlist.sh command-list.txt
 
 common-cmds.h: $(wildcard Documentation/git-*.txt)
-	$(QUIET_GEN)$(PERL_PATH) generate-cmdlist.perl command-list.txt > $@+ && mv $@+ $@
+	$(QUIET_GEN)./generate-cmdlist.sh command-list.txt >$@+ && mv $@+ $@
 
 SCRIPT_DEFINES = $(SHELL_PATH_SQ):$(DIFF_SQ):$(GIT_VERSION):\
 	$(localedir_SQ):$(NO_CURL):$(USE_GETTEXT_SCHEME):$(SANE_TOOL_PATH_SQ):\
diff --git a/generate-cmdlist.perl b/generate-cmdlist.perl
deleted file mode 100755
index 31516e36ac..0000000000
--- a/generate-cmdlist.perl
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,50 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/perl
-use strict;
-use warnings;
-
-print <<"EOT";
-/* Automatically generated by $0 */
-
-struct cmdname_help {
-	char name[16];
-	char help[80];
-	unsigned char group;
-};
-
-static char *common_cmd_groups[] = {
-EOT
-
-my $n = 0;
-my %grp;
-while (<>) {
-	last if /^### command list/;
-	next if (1../^### common groups/) || /^#/ || /^\s*$/;
-	chop;
-	my ($k, $v) = split ' ', $_, 2;
-	$grp{$k} = $n++;
-	print "\tN_(\"$v\"),\n";
-}
-
-print "};\n\nstatic struct cmdname_help common_cmds[] = {\n";
-
-while (<>) {
-	next if /^#/ || /^\s*$/;
-	my @tags = split;
-	my $cmd = shift @tags;
-	for my $t (@tags) {
-		if (exists $grp{$t}) {
-			my $s;
-			open my $f, '<', "Documentation/$cmd.txt" or die;
-			while (<$f>) {
-				($s) = /^$cmd - (.+)$/;
-				last if $s;
-			}
-			close $f;
-			$cmd =~ s/^git-//;
-			print "\t{\"$cmd\", N_(\"$s\"), $grp{$t}},\n";
-			last;
-		}
-	}
-}
-
-print "};\n";
diff --git a/generate-cmdlist.sh b/generate-cmdlist.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..ab0d1b0c06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/generate-cmdlist.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+echo "/* Automatically generated by $0 */
+struct cmdname_help {
+	char name[16];
+	char help[80];
+	unsigned char group;
+};
+
+static const char *common_cmd_groups[] = {"
+
+grps=grps$$.tmp
+match=match$$.tmp
+trap "rm -f '$grps' '$match'" 0 1 2 3 15
+
+sed -n '
+	1,/^### common groups/b
+	/^### command list/q
+	/^#/b
+	/^[ 	]*$/b
+	h;s/^[^ 	][^ 	]*[ 	][ 	]*\(.*\)/	N_("\1"),/p
+	g;s/^\([^ 	][^ 	]*\)[ 	].*/\1/w '$grps'
+	' "$1"
+printf '};\n\n'
+
+n=0
+substnum=
+while read grp
+do
+	echo "^git-..*[ 	]$grp"
+	substnum="$substnum${substnum:+;}s/[ 	]$grp/$n/"
+	n=$(($n+1))
+done <"$grps" >"$match"
+
+printf 'static struct cmdname_help common_cmds[] = {\n'
+grep -f "$match" "$1" |
+sed 's/^git-//' |
+sort |
+while read cmd tags
+do
+	tag=$(echo "$tags" | sed "$substnum; s/[^0-9]//g")
+	sed -n '
+		/^NAME/,/git-'"$cmd"'/H
+		${
+			x
+			s/.*git-'"$cmd"' - \(.*\)/	{"'"$cmd"'", N_("\1"), '$tag'},/
+			p
+		}' "Documentation/git-$cmd.txt"
+done
+echo "};"