diff --git a/git-cvsexportcommit.perl b/git-cvsexportcommit.perl
index 7bac16e946..c9d1d88f2e 100755
--- a/git-cvsexportcommit.perl
+++ b/git-cvsexportcommit.perl
@@ -116,6 +116,7 @@
 close MSG;
 
 my (@afiles, @dfiles, @mfiles, @dirs);
+my %amodes;
 my @files = safe_pipe_capture('git-diff-tree', '-r', $parent, $commit);
 #print @files;
 $? && die "Error in git-diff-tree";
@@ -124,6 +125,7 @@
     my @fields = split(m!\s+!, $f);
     if ($fields[4] eq 'A') {
         my $path = $fields[5];
+	$amodes{$path} = $fields[1];
 	push @afiles, $path;
         # add any needed parent directories
 	$path = dirname $path;
@@ -268,6 +270,7 @@
 }
 
 foreach my $f (@afiles) {
+    set_new_file_permissions($f, $amodes{$f});
     if (grep { $_ eq $f } @bfiles) {
       system('cvs', 'add','-kb',$f);
     } else {
@@ -342,3 +345,13 @@ sub safe_pipe_capture {
     }
     return wantarray ? @output : join('',@output);
 }
+
+# For any file we want to add to cvs, we must first set its permissions
+# properly, *before* the "cvs add ..." command.  Otherwise, it is impossible
+# to change the permission of the file in the CVS repository using only cvs
+# commands.  This should be fixed in cvs-1.12.14.
+sub set_new_file_permissions {
+    my ($file, $perm) = @_;
+    chmod oct($perm), $file
+      or die "failed to set permissions of \"$file\": $!\n";
+}
diff --git a/t/t9200-git-cvsexportcommit.sh b/t/t9200-git-cvsexportcommit.sh
index 6e566d4409..c1024790e4 100755
--- a/t/t9200-git-cvsexportcommit.sh
+++ b/t/t9200-git-cvsexportcommit.sh
@@ -142,4 +142,20 @@ test_expect_success \
      diff F/newfile6.png ../F/newfile6.png
      )'
 
+test_expect_success 'Retain execute bit' '
+	mkdir G &&
+	echo executeon >G/on &&
+	chmod +x G/on &&
+	echo executeoff >G/off &&
+	git add G/on &&
+	git add G/off &&
+	git commit -a -m "Execute test" &&
+	(
+		cd "$CVSWORK" &&
+		git-cvsexportcommit -c HEAD
+		test -x G/on &&
+		! test -x G/off
+	)
+'
+
 test_done