diff --git a/builtin/gc.c b/builtin/gc.c
index 6a7a2da006eeee..d52735354c9f87 100644
--- a/builtin/gc.c
+++ b/builtin/gc.c
@@ -1832,7 +1832,7 @@ static const char *get_extra_launchctl_strings(void) {
  *     | Input |                     Output                      |
  *     | *cmd  | return code |       *out        | *is_available |
  *     +-------+-------------+-------------------+---------------+
- *     | "foo" |    false    | NULL              |  (unchanged)  |
+ *     | "foo" |    false    | "foo" (allocated) |  (unchanged)  |
  *     +-------+-------------+-------------------+---------------+
  *
  *   GIT_TEST_MAINT_SCHEDULER set to “foo:./mock_foo.sh,bar:./mock_bar.sh”
@@ -1850,8 +1850,11 @@ static int get_schedule_cmd(const char *cmd, int *is_available, char **out)
 	struct string_list_item *item;
 	struct string_list list = STRING_LIST_INIT_NODUP;
 
-	if (!testing)
+	if (!testing) {
+		if (out)
+			*out = xstrdup(cmd);
 		return 0;
+	}
 
 	if (is_available)
 		*is_available = 0;
diff --git a/t/t7900-maintenance.sh b/t/t7900-maintenance.sh
index a66d0e089d2d3a..86bc77e73ffcb2 100755
--- a/t/t7900-maintenance.sh
+++ b/t/t7900-maintenance.sh
@@ -646,6 +646,22 @@ test_expect_success !MINGW 'register and unregister with regex metacharacters' '
 		maintenance.repo "$(pwd)/$META"
 '
 
+test_expect_success !MINGW,!DARWIN 'start without GIT_TEST_MAINT_SCHEDULER' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -rf crontab.log script repo" &&
+	mkdir script &&
+	write_script script/crontab <<-EOF &&
+	echo "\$*" >>"$(pwd)"/crontab.log
+	EOF
+	git init repo &&
+	(
+		cd repo &&
+		sane_unset GIT_TEST_MAINT_SCHEDULER &&
+		PATH="$(pwd)/../script:$PATH" git maintenance start --scheduler=crontab
+	) &&
+	test_grep -- -l crontab.log &&
+	test_grep -- git_cron_edit_tmp crontab.log
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'start --scheduler=<scheduler>' '
 	test_expect_code 129 git maintenance start --scheduler=foo 2>err &&
 	test_grep "unrecognized --scheduler argument" err &&
diff --git a/t/test-lib.sh b/t/test-lib.sh
index 9ca34a2bb82887..6f15145341b702 100644
--- a/t/test-lib.sh
+++ b/t/test-lib.sh
@@ -1738,6 +1738,12 @@ case $uname_s in
 	test_set_prereq GREP_STRIPS_CR
 	test_set_prereq WINDOWS
 	;;
+*Darwin*)
+	test_set_prereq POSIXPERM
+	test_set_prereq BSLASHPSPEC
+	test_set_prereq EXECKEEPSPID
+	test_set_prereq DARWIN
+	;;
 *)
 	test_set_prereq POSIXPERM
 	test_set_prereq BSLASHPSPEC