diff --git a/Documentation/git-svn.txt b/Documentation/git-svn.txt
index 636e09048e..b858374649 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-svn.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-svn.txt
@@ -657,6 +657,11 @@ config key: svn.authorsfile
 	expected to return a single line of the form "Name <email>",
 	which will be treated as if included in the authors file.
 +
+Due to historical reasons a relative 'filename' is first searched
+relative to the current directory for 'init' and 'clone' and relative
+to the root of the working tree for 'fetch'. If 'filename' is
+not found, it is searched like any other command in '$PATH'.
++
 [verse]
 config key: svn.authorsProg
 
diff --git a/git-svn.perl b/git-svn.perl
index a6b6c3e40c..050f2a36f4 100755
--- a/git-svn.perl
+++ b/git-svn.perl
@@ -374,7 +374,8 @@ version() if $_version;
 usage(1) unless defined $cmd;
 load_authors() if $_authors;
 if (defined $_authors_prog) {
-	$_authors_prog = "'" . File::Spec->rel2abs($_authors_prog) . "'";
+	my $abs_file = File::Spec->rel2abs($_authors_prog);
+	$_authors_prog = "'" . $abs_file . "'" if -x $abs_file;
 }
 
 unless ($cmd =~ /^(?:clone|init|multi-init|commit-diff)$/) {