diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index b258fdbed8..093829ae28 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -289,6 +289,10 @@ include shared.mak
 # Define NO_REGEX if your C library lacks regex support with REG_STARTEND
 # feature.
 #
+# Define USE_ENHANCED_BASIC_REGULAR_EXPRESSIONS if your C library provides
+# the flag REG_ENHANCED and you'd like to use it to enable enhanced basic
+# regular expressions.
+#
 # Define HAVE_DEV_TTY if your system can open /dev/tty to interact with the
 # user.
 #
@@ -2040,6 +2044,11 @@ endif
 ifdef NO_REGEX
 	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -Icompat/regex
 	COMPAT_OBJS += compat/regex/regex.o
+else
+ifdef USE_ENHANCED_BASIC_REGULAR_EXPRESSIONS
+	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -DUSE_ENHANCED_BASIC_REGULAR_EXPRESSIONS
+	COMPAT_OBJS += compat/regcomp_enhanced.o
+endif
 endif
 ifdef NATIVE_CRLF
 	BASIC_CFLAGS += -DNATIVE_CRLF
diff --git a/compat/regcomp_enhanced.c b/compat/regcomp_enhanced.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..84193ce53b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compat/regcomp_enhanced.c
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#include "../git-compat-util.h"
+#undef regcomp
+
+int git_regcomp(regex_t *preg, const char *pattern, int cflags)
+{
+	if (!(cflags & REG_EXTENDED))
+		cflags |= REG_ENHANCED;
+	return regcomp(preg, pattern, cflags);
+}
diff --git a/config.mak.uname b/config.mak.uname
index d63629fe80..7d25995265 100644
--- a/config.mak.uname
+++ b/config.mak.uname
@@ -147,6 +147,7 @@ ifeq ($(uname_S),Darwin)
 	FREAD_READS_DIRECTORIES = UnfortunatelyYes
 	HAVE_NS_GET_EXECUTABLE_PATH = YesPlease
 	CSPRNG_METHOD = arc4random
+	USE_ENHANCED_BASIC_REGULAR_EXPRESSIONS = YesPlease
 
 	# Workaround for `gettext` being keg-only and not even being linked via
 	# `brew link --force gettext`, should be obsolete as of
diff --git a/git-compat-util.h b/git-compat-util.h
index a76d0526f7..4824c8cad4 100644
--- a/git-compat-util.h
+++ b/git-compat-util.h
@@ -1336,6 +1336,11 @@ static inline int regexec_buf(const regex_t *preg, const char *buf, size_t size,
 	return regexec(preg, buf, nmatch, pmatch, eflags | REG_STARTEND);
 }
 
+#ifdef USE_ENHANCED_BASIC_REGULAR_EXPRESSIONS
+int git_regcomp(regex_t *preg, const char *pattern, int cflags);
+#define regcomp git_regcomp
+#endif
+
 #ifndef DIR_HAS_BSD_GROUP_SEMANTICS
 # define FORCE_DIR_SET_GID S_ISGID
 #else