diff --git a/tools/git-if-needed/tests/gifn-test.pl b/tools/git-if-needed/tests/gifn-test.pl
index 989cbfa..7684468 100755
--- a/tools/git-if-needed/tests/gifn-test.pl
+++ b/tools/git-if-needed/tests/gifn-test.pl
@@ -436,17 +436,18 @@
 	    TEMPLATE => 'gifn-test.XXXXXX',
 	    TMPDIR => 1);
 
+	my @gifn_cmd = @ARGV;
+	$gifn_cmd[0] = path($gifn_cmd[0])->absolute;
+
 	my $cfg = {
 		cwd => $cwd,
 		data => $cwd->child('tests')->child('data'),
-		gifn => [@ARGV],
+		gifn => ['env', "LC_MESSAGES=$locale", @gifn_cmd],
 		git => ['env', "LC_MESSAGES=$locale", 'git', '--no-pager'],
 		repo => path($repodir),
 		subrepo => path($subrepodir),
 	};
 
-	$cfg->{gifn}[0] = path($cfg->{gifn}[0])->absolute;
-
 	eval {
 		setup_repo $cfg;