diff --git a/tag.c b/tag.c
index 682e779305..94a89b21cb 100644
--- a/tag.c
+++ b/tag.c
@@ -64,12 +64,11 @@ int gpg_verify_tag(const struct object_id *oid, const char *name_to_report,
 	return ret;
 }
 
-struct object *deref_tag_the_repository(struct object *o, const char *warn, int warnlen)
+struct object *deref_tag(struct repository *r, struct object *o, const char *warn, int warnlen)
 {
 	while (o && o->type == OBJ_TAG)
 		if (((struct tag *)o)->tagged)
-			o = parse_object(the_repository,
-					 &((struct tag *)o)->tagged->oid);
+			o = parse_object(r, &((struct tag *)o)->tagged->oid);
 		else
 			o = NULL;
 	if (!o && warn) {
diff --git a/tag.h b/tag.h
index efd4c7da67..e669c3e497 100644
--- a/tag.h
+++ b/tag.h
@@ -15,8 +15,7 @@ extern struct tag *lookup_tag(struct repository *r, const struct object_id *oid)
 extern int parse_tag_buffer(struct repository *r, struct tag *item, const void *data, unsigned long size);
 extern int parse_tag(struct tag *item);
 extern void release_tag_memory(struct tag *t);
-#define deref_tag(r, o, w, l) deref_tag_##r(o, w, l)
-extern struct object *deref_tag_the_repository(struct object *, const char *, int);
+extern struct object *deref_tag(struct repository *r, struct object *, const char *, int);
 extern struct object *deref_tag_noverify(struct object *);
 extern int gpg_verify_tag(const struct object_id *oid,
 		const char *name_to_report, unsigned flags);