diff --git a/connect.c b/connect.c
index 7fbd396b35..aa994d1518 100644
--- a/connect.c
+++ b/connect.c
@@ -582,12 +582,25 @@ static int git_tcp_connect_sock(char *host, int flags)
 #endif /* NO_IPV6 */
 
 
-static void git_tcp_connect(int fd[2], char *host, int flags)
+/*
+ * Dummy child_process returned by git_connect() if the transport protocol
+ * does not need fork(2).
+ */
+static struct child_process no_fork = CHILD_PROCESS_INIT;
+
+int git_connection_is_socket(struct child_process *conn)
+{
+	return conn == &no_fork;
+}
+
+static struct child_process *git_tcp_connect(int fd[2], char *host, int flags)
 {
 	int sockfd = git_tcp_connect_sock(host, flags);
 
 	fd[0] = sockfd;
 	fd[1] = dup(sockfd);
+
+	return &no_fork;
 }
 
 
@@ -761,8 +774,6 @@ static enum protocol parse_connect_url(const char *url_orig, char **ret_host,
 	return protocol;
 }
 
-static struct child_process no_fork = CHILD_PROCESS_INIT;
-
 static const char *get_ssh_command(void)
 {
 	const char *ssh;
@@ -851,11 +862,11 @@ static enum ssh_variant determine_ssh_variant(const char *ssh_command,
 }
 
 /*
- * This returns a dummy child_process if the transport protocol does not
- * need fork(2), or a struct child_process object if it does.  Once done,
- * finish the connection with finish_connect() with the value returned from
- * this function (it is safe to call finish_connect() with NULL to support
- * the former case).
+ * This returns the dummy child_process `no_fork` if the transport protocol
+ * does not need fork(2), or a struct child_process object if it does.  Once
+ * done, finish the connection with finish_connect() with the value returned
+ * from this function (it is safe to call finish_connect() with NULL to
+ * support the former case).
  *
  * If it returns, the connect is successful; it just dies on errors (this
  * will hopefully be changed in a libification effort, to return NULL when
@@ -865,7 +876,7 @@ struct child_process *git_connect(int fd[2], const char *url,
 				  const char *prog, int flags)
 {
 	char *hostandport, *path;
-	struct child_process *conn = &no_fork;
+	struct child_process *conn;
 	enum protocol protocol;
 
 	/* Without this we cannot rely on waitpid() to tell
@@ -901,7 +912,7 @@ struct child_process *git_connect(int fd[2], const char *url,
 		if (git_use_proxy(hostandport))
 			conn = git_proxy_connect(fd, hostandport);
 		else
-			git_tcp_connect(fd, hostandport, flags);
+			conn = git_tcp_connect(fd, hostandport, flags);
 		/*
 		 * Separate original protocol components prog and path
 		 * from extended host header with a NUL byte.
@@ -1041,11 +1052,6 @@ struct child_process *git_connect(int fd[2], const char *url,
 	return conn;
 }
 
-int git_connection_is_socket(struct child_process *conn)
-{
-	return conn == &no_fork;
-}
-
 int finish_connect(struct child_process *conn)
 {
 	int code;