diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index c0d7bcff8ca..3c0c48478e0 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -1598,7 +1598,8 @@ http.proxy::
 	remote.<name>.proxy
 
 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]).
diff --git a/http.c b/http.c
index c29ce81ccc0..1b4520c626d 100644
--- a/http.c
+++ b/http.c
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ static int http_options(const char *var, const char *value, void *cb)
 		return git_config_string(&curl_http_proxy, 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;