diff --git a/Documentation/MyFirstObjectWalk.txt b/Documentation/MyFirstObjectWalk.txt
index c3f2d1a831..85434d1938 100644
--- a/Documentation/MyFirstObjectWalk.txt
+++ b/Documentation/MyFirstObjectWalk.txt
@@ -394,7 +394,7 @@ First some setup. Add `init_grep_defaults()` to `init_walken_defaults()` and add
 ----
 static void init_walken_defaults(void)
 {
-	init_grep_defaults(the_repository);
+	init_grep_defaults();
 }
 
 ...
diff --git a/builtin/grep.c b/builtin/grep.c
index e58e57504c..2b96efa8c2 100644
--- a/builtin/grep.c
+++ b/builtin/grep.c
@@ -950,7 +950,7 @@ int cmd_grep(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		OPT_END()
 	};
 
-	init_grep_defaults(the_repository);
+	init_grep_defaults();
 	git_config(grep_cmd_config, NULL);
 	grep_init(&opt, the_repository, prefix);
 
diff --git a/builtin/log.c b/builtin/log.c
index 49eb8f6431..eee4beca4d 100644
--- a/builtin/log.c
+++ b/builtin/log.c
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ static int log_line_range_callback(const struct option *option, const char *arg,
 
 static void init_log_defaults(void)
 {
-	init_grep_defaults(the_repository);
+	init_grep_defaults();
 	init_diff_ui_defaults();
 
 	decoration_style = auto_decoration_style();
diff --git a/grep.c b/grep.c
index 54af9f813e..b351449f7f 100644
--- a/grep.c
+++ b/grep.c
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ static void color_set(char *dst, const char *color_bytes)
  * We could let the compiler do this, but without C99 initializers
  * the code gets unwieldy and unreadable, so...
  */
-void init_grep_defaults(struct repository *repo)
+void init_grep_defaults(void)
 {
 	struct grep_opt *opt = &grep_defaults;
 	static int run_once;
@@ -67,7 +67,6 @@ void init_grep_defaults(struct repository *repo)
 	run_once++;
 
 	memset(opt, 0, sizeof(*opt));
-	opt->repo = repo;
 	opt->relative = 1;
 	opt->pathname = 1;
 	opt->max_depth = -1;
diff --git a/grep.h b/grep.h
index 9115db8515..1c5478f381 100644
--- a/grep.h
+++ b/grep.h
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ struct grep_opt {
 	void *output_priv;
 };
 
-void init_grep_defaults(struct repository *);
+void init_grep_defaults(void);
 int grep_config(const char *var, const char *value, void *);
 void grep_init(struct grep_opt *, struct repository *repo, const char *prefix);
 void grep_destroy(void);
diff --git a/revision.c b/revision.c
index aa62212040..f35ea1db11 100644
--- a/revision.c
+++ b/revision.c
@@ -1834,7 +1834,7 @@ void repo_init_revisions(struct repository *r,
 	revs->commit_format = CMIT_FMT_DEFAULT;
 	revs->expand_tabs_in_log_default = 8;
 
-	init_grep_defaults(revs->repo);
+	init_grep_defaults();
 	grep_init(&revs->grep_filter, revs->repo, prefix);
 	revs->grep_filter.status_only = 1;