diff --git a/Documentation/git-p4.txt b/Documentation/git-p4.txt
index bae862ddcb9..7436c64a956 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-p4.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-p4.txt
@@ -479,6 +479,8 @@ git-p4.client::
 git-p4.retries::
 	Specifies the number of times to retry a p4 command (notably,
 	'p4 sync') if the network times out. The default value is 3.
+	Set the value to 0 to disable retries or if your p4 version
+	does not support retries (pre 2012.2).
 
 Clone and sync variables
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/git-p4.py b/git-p4.py
index 22e3f57e7d9..7bda915bd0c 100755
--- a/git-p4.py
+++ b/git-p4.py
@@ -83,7 +83,9 @@ def p4_build_cmd(cmd):
     if retries is None:
         # Perform 3 retries by default
         retries = 3
-    real_cmd += ["-r", str(retries)]
+    if retries > 0:
+        # Provide a way to not pass this option by setting git-p4.retries to 0
+        real_cmd += ["-r", str(retries)]
 
     if isinstance(cmd,basestring):
         real_cmd = ' '.join(real_cmd) + ' ' + cmd