diff --git a/perl/Git.pm b/perl/Git.pm
index 03bf570bf4c852..aebfe0c6e07c27 100644
--- a/perl/Git.pm
+++ b/perl/Git.pm
@@ -418,7 +418,7 @@ argument is required if you want to see the command name in the error message,
 and it is the fourth value returned by C<command_bidi_pipe()>.  The call idiom
 is:
 
-	my ($pid, $in, $out, $ctx) = $r->command_bidi_pipe('cat-file --batch-check');
+	my ($pid, $in, $out, $ctx) = $r->command_bidi_pipe(qw(cat-file --batch-check));
 	print $out "000000000\n";
 	while (<$in>) { ... }
 	$r->command_close_bidi_pipe($pid, $in, $out, $ctx);
@@ -431,7 +431,7 @@ C<PIPE_IN> and C<PIPE_OUT> may be C<undef> if they have been closed prior to
 calling this function.  This may be useful in a query-response type of
 commands where caller first writes a query and later reads response, eg:
 
-	my ($pid, $in, $out, $ctx) = $r->command_bidi_pipe('cat-file --batch-check');
+	my ($pid, $in, $out, $ctx) = $r->command_bidi_pipe(qw(cat-file --batch-check));
 	print $out "000000000\n";
 	close $out;
 	while (<$in>) { ... }
diff --git a/t/t1006-cat-file.sh b/t/t1006-cat-file.sh
index e12b2219721c4e..ff9bf213aa2c73 100755
--- a/t/t1006-cat-file.sh
+++ b/t/t1006-cat-file.sh
@@ -1294,4 +1294,34 @@ test_expect_success 'batch-command flush without --buffer' '
 	grep "^fatal:.*flush is only for --buffer mode.*" err
 '
 
+script='
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+use IPC::Open2;
+my ($opt, $oid, $expect, @pfx) = @ARGV;
+my @cmd = (qw(git cat-file), $opt);
+my $pid = open2(my $out, my $in, @cmd) or die "open2: @cmd";
+print $in @pfx, $oid, "\n" or die "print $!";
+my $rvec = "";
+vec($rvec, fileno($out), 1) = 1;
+select($rvec, undef, undef, 30) or die "no response to `@pfx $oid` from @cmd";
+my $info = <$out>;
+chop($info) eq "\n" or die "no LF";
+$info eq $expect or die "`$info` != `$expect`";
+close $in or die "close in $!";
+close $out or die "close out $!";
+waitpid $pid, 0;
+$? == 0 or die "\$?=$?";
+'
+
+expect="$hello_oid blob $hello_size"
+
+test_expect_success PERL '--batch-check is unbuffered by default' '
+	perl -e "$script" -- --batch-check $hello_oid "$expect"
+'
+
+test_expect_success PERL '--batch-command info is unbuffered by default' '
+	perl -e "$script" -- --batch-command $hello_oid "$expect" "info "
+'
+
 test_done