diff --git a/Documentation/git-credential.txt b/Documentation/git-credential.txt
index a81684e15ff..53adee32036 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-credential.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-credential.txt
@@ -102,22 +102,20 @@ INPUT/OUTPUT FORMAT
 -------------------
 
 `git credential` reads and/or writes (depending on the action used)
-credential information in its standard input/output. These information
+credential information in its standard input/output. This information
 can correspond either to keys for which `git credential` will obtain
 the login/password information (e.g. host, protocol, path), or to the
 actual credential data to be obtained (login/password).
 
-The credential is split into a set of named attributes.
-Attributes are provided to the helper, one per line. Each attribute is
+The credential is split into a set of named attributes, with one
+attribute per line. Each attribute is
 specified by a key-value pair, separated by an `=` (equals) sign,
 followed by a newline. The key may contain any bytes except `=`,
 newline, or NUL. The value may contain any bytes except newline or NUL.
 In both cases, all bytes are treated as-is (i.e., there is no quoting,
 and one cannot transmit a value with newline or NUL in it). The list of
 attributes is terminated by a blank line or end-of-file.
-Git will send the following attributes (but may not send all of
-them for a given credential; for example, a `host` attribute makes no
-sense when dealing with a non-network protocol):
+Git understands the following attributes:
 
 `protocol`::
 
@@ -142,3 +140,15 @@ sense when dealing with a non-network protocol):
 `password`::
 
 	The credential's password, if we are asking it to be stored.
+
+`url`::
+
+	When this special attribute is read by `git credential`, the
+	value is parsed as a URL and treated as if its constituent parts
+	were read (e.g., `url=https://example.com` would behave as if
+	`protocol=https` and `host=example.com` had been provided). This
+	can help callers avoid parsing URLs themselves.  Note that any
+	components which are missing from the URL (e.g., there is no
+	username in the example above) will be set to empty; if you want
+	to provide a URL and override some attributes, provide the URL
+	attribute first, followed by any overrides.
diff --git a/contrib/mw-to-git/git-remote-mediawiki b/contrib/mw-to-git/git-remote-mediawiki
index dc137409b1a..8647c92df82 100755
--- a/contrib/mw-to-git/git-remote-mediawiki
+++ b/contrib/mw-to-git/git-remote-mediawiki
@@ -171,32 +171,6 @@ while (<STDIN>) {
 
 ## credential API management (generic functions)
 
-sub credential_from_url {
-	my $url = shift;
-	my $parsed = URI->new($url);
-	my %credential;
-
-	if ($parsed->scheme) {
-		$credential{protocol} = $parsed->scheme;
-	}
-	if ($parsed->host) {
-		$credential{host} = $parsed->host;
-	}
-	if ($parsed->path) {
-		$credential{path} = $parsed->path;
-	}
-	if ($parsed->userinfo) {
-		if ($parsed->userinfo =~ /([^:]*):(.*)/) {
-			$credential{username} = $1;
-			$credential{password} = $2;
-		} else {
-			$credential{username} = $parsed->userinfo;
-		}
-	}
-
-	return %credential;
-}
-
 sub credential_read {
 	my %credential;
 	my $reader = shift;
@@ -214,8 +188,10 @@ sub credential_read {
 sub credential_write {
 	my $credential = shift;
 	my $writer = shift;
+	# url overwrites other fields, so it must come first
+	print $writer "url=$credential->{url}\n" if exists $credential->{url};
 	while (my ($key, $value) = each(%$credential) ) {
-		if ($value) {
+		if (length $value && $key ne 'url') {
 			print $writer "$key=$value\n";
 		}
 	}
@@ -254,7 +230,7 @@ sub mw_connect_maybe {
 	$mediawiki = MediaWiki::API->new;
 	$mediawiki->{config}->{api_url} = "$url/api.php";
 	if ($wiki_login) {
-		my %credential = credential_from_url($url);
+		my %credential = (url => $url);
 		$credential{username} = $wiki_login;
 		$credential{password} = $wiki_passwd;
 		credential_run("fill", \%credential);
diff --git a/credential.c b/credential.c
index 2c400073fac..e54753c75d1 100644
--- a/credential.c
+++ b/credential.c
@@ -172,6 +172,8 @@ int credential_read(struct credential *c, FILE *fp)
 		} else if (!strcmp(key, "path")) {
 			free(c->path);
 			c->path = xstrdup(value);
+		} else if (!strcmp(key, "url")) {
+			credential_from_url(c, value);
 		}
 		/*
 		 * Ignore other lines; we don't know what they mean, but