diff --git a/builtin-init-db.c b/builtin-init-db.c
index e1393b8d1..e51d44776 100644
--- a/builtin-init-db.c
+++ b/builtin-init-db.c
@@ -142,8 +142,7 @@ static void copy_templates(const char *git_dir, int len, const char *template_di
 		template_dir = DEFAULT_GIT_TEMPLATE_DIR;
 		if (!is_absolute_path(template_dir)) {
 			const char *exec_path = git_exec_path();
-			template_dir = prefix_path(exec_path, strlen(exec_path),
-						   template_dir);
+			template_dir = prefix_filename(exec_path, strlen(exec_path), template_dir);
 		}
 	}
 	strcpy(template_path, template_dir);
diff --git a/config.c b/config.c
index 526a3f429..0b0c9bd05 100644
--- a/config.c
+++ b/config.c
@@ -485,8 +485,9 @@ const char *git_etc_gitconfig(void)
 		if (!is_absolute_path(system_wide)) {
 			/* interpret path relative to exec-dir */
 			const char *exec_path = git_exec_path();
-			system_wide = prefix_path(exec_path, strlen(exec_path),
-						system_wide);
+			system_wide = strdup(prefix_filename(exec_path,
+							     strlen(exec_path),
+							     system_wide));
 		}
 	}
 	return system_wide;