diff --git a/sha1_file.c b/sha1_file.c
index 3f70b1d86..8db73f0c5 100644
--- a/sha1_file.c
+++ b/sha1_file.c
@@ -1923,7 +1923,9 @@ static void *unpack_compressed_entry(struct packed_git *p,
 	git_zstream stream;
 	unsigned char *buffer, *in;
 
-	buffer = xmallocz(size);
+	buffer = xmallocz_gently(size);
+	if (!buffer)
+		return NULL;
 	memset(&stream, 0, sizeof(stream));
 	stream.next_out = buffer;
 	stream.avail_out = size + 1;
diff --git a/t/t1050-large.sh b/t/t1050-large.sh
index aea493646..5642f84b8 100755
--- a/t/t1050-large.sh
+++ b/t/t1050-large.sh
@@ -163,4 +163,10 @@ test_expect_success 'zip achiving, deflate' '
 	git archive --format=zip HEAD >/dev/null
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'fsck' '
+	test_must_fail git fsck 2>err &&
+	n=$(grep "error: attempting to allocate .* over limit" err | wc -l) &&
+	test "$n" -gt 1
+'
+
 test_done