diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index 6e97e1e05e4..536b6e624a1 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -1679,11 +1679,12 @@ http.extraHeader::
 	config, an empty value will reset the extra headers to the empty list.
 
 http.cookieFile::
-	File containing previously stored cookie lines which should be used
+	The pathname of a file containing previously stored cookie lines,
+	which should be used
 	in the Git http session, if they match the server. The file format
 	of the file to read cookies from should be plain HTTP headers or
 	the Netscape/Mozilla cookie file format (see linkgit:curl[1]).
-	NOTE that the file specified with http.cookieFile is only used as
+	NOTE that the file specified with http.cookieFile is used only as
 	input unless http.saveCookies is set.
 
 http.saveCookies::
diff --git a/http.c b/http.c
index 985b995c1d0..6fe74d5eeaf 100644
--- a/http.c
+++ b/http.c
@@ -294,7 +294,7 @@ static int http_options(const char *var, const char *value, void *cb)
 		return git_config_string(&http_proxy_authmethod, var, value);
 
 	if (!strcmp("http.cookiefile", var))
-		return git_config_string(&curl_cookie_file, var, value);
+		return git_config_pathname(&curl_cookie_file, var, value);
 	if (!strcmp("http.savecookies", var)) {
 		curl_save_cookies = git_config_bool(var, value);
 		return 0;