diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index a215bee461..f088b46c86 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1687,10 +1687,10 @@ $(BUILT_INS): git$X
 	ln -s $< $@ 2>/dev/null || \
 	cp $< $@
 
-common-cmds.h: ./generate-cmdlist.sh command-list.txt
+common-cmds.h: generate-cmdlist.perl command-list.txt
 
 common-cmds.h: $(wildcard Documentation/git-*.txt)
-	$(QUIET_GEN)./generate-cmdlist.sh > $@+ && mv $@+ $@
+	$(QUIET_GEN)$(PERL_PATH) generate-cmdlist.perl command-list.txt > $@+ && mv $@+ $@
 
 SCRIPT_DEFINES = $(SHELL_PATH_SQ):$(DIFF_SQ):$(GIT_VERSION):\
 	$(localedir_SQ):$(NO_CURL):$(USE_GETTEXT_SCHEME):$(SANE_TOOL_PATH_SQ):\
diff --git a/generate-cmdlist.perl b/generate-cmdlist.perl
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..31516e36ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/generate-cmdlist.perl
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+
+print <<"EOT";
+/* Automatically generated by $0 */
+
+struct cmdname_help {
+	char name[16];
+	char help[80];
+	unsigned char group;
+};
+
+static char *common_cmd_groups[] = {
+EOT
+
+my $n = 0;
+my %grp;
+while (<>) {
+	last if /^### command list/;
+	next if (1../^### common groups/) || /^#/ || /^\s*$/;
+	chop;
+	my ($k, $v) = split ' ', $_, 2;
+	$grp{$k} = $n++;
+	print "\tN_(\"$v\"),\n";
+}
+
+print "};\n\nstatic struct cmdname_help common_cmds[] = {\n";
+
+while (<>) {
+	next if /^#/ || /^\s*$/;
+	my @tags = split;
+	my $cmd = shift @tags;
+	for my $t (@tags) {
+		if (exists $grp{$t}) {
+			my $s;
+			open my $f, '<', "Documentation/$cmd.txt" or die;
+			while (<$f>) {
+				($s) = /^$cmd - (.+)$/;
+				last if $s;
+			}
+			close $f;
+			$cmd =~ s/^git-//;
+			print "\t{\"$cmd\", N_(\"$s\"), $grp{$t}},\n";
+			last;
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+print "};\n";
diff --git a/generate-cmdlist.sh b/generate-cmdlist.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 9a4c9b94e6..0000000000
--- a/generate-cmdlist.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,23 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-
-echo "/* Automatically generated by $0 */
-struct cmdname_help {
-    char name[16];
-    char help[80];
-};
-
-static struct cmdname_help common_cmds[] = {"
-
-sed -n -e 's/^git-\([^ 	]*\)[ 	].* common.*/\1/p' command-list.txt |
-sort |
-while read cmd
-do
-     sed -n '
-     /^NAME/,/git-'"$cmd"'/H
-     ${
-	    x
-	    s/.*git-'"$cmd"' - \(.*\)/  {"'"$cmd"'", N_("\1")},/
-	    p
-     }' "Documentation/git-$cmd.txt"
-done
-echo "};"