diff --git a/t/README b/t/README
index 593d4a4e270cc0..63f9e07605d5c1 100644
--- a/t/README
+++ b/t/README
@@ -196,6 +196,11 @@ appropriately before running "make". Short options can be bundled, i.e.
 	this feature by setting the GIT_TEST_CHAIN_LINT environment
 	variable to "1" or "0", respectively.
 
+	A few test scripts disable some of the more advanced
+	chain-linting detection in the name of efficiency. You can
+	override this by setting the GIT_TEST_CHAIN_LINT_HARDER
+	environment variable to "1".
+
 --stress::
 	Run the test script repeatedly in multiple parallel jobs until
 	one of them fails.  Useful for reproducing rare failures in
diff --git a/t/t0027-auto-crlf.sh b/t/t0027-auto-crlf.sh
index d24d5acfbc7947..4a5c5c602cfa8f 100755
--- a/t/t0027-auto-crlf.sh
+++ b/t/t0027-auto-crlf.sh
@@ -386,7 +386,9 @@ test_expect_success 'setup main' '
 	test_tick
 '
 
-
+# Disable extra chain-linting for the next set of tests. There are many
+# auto-generated ones that are not worth checking over and over.
+GIT_TEST_CHAIN_LINT_HARDER_DEFAULT=0
 
 warn_LF_CRLF="LF will be replaced by CRLF"
 warn_CRLF_LF="CRLF will be replaced by LF"
@@ -597,6 +599,9 @@ do
 	checkout_files     auto  "$id" ""     false   native   $NL   CRLF  CRLF_mix_LF  LF_mix_CR    LF_nul
 done
 
+# The rest of the tests are unique; do the usual linting.
+unset GIT_TEST_CHAIN_LINT_HARDER_DEFAULT
+
 # Should be the last test case: remove some files from the worktree
 test_expect_success 'ls-files --eol -d -z' '
 	rm crlf_false_attr__CRLF.txt crlf_false_attr__CRLF_mix_LF.txt crlf_false_attr__LF.txt .gitattributes &&
diff --git a/t/t3070-wildmatch.sh b/t/t3070-wildmatch.sh
index 891d4d7cb9f1a7..56ea4bda133d74 100755
--- a/t/t3070-wildmatch.sh
+++ b/t/t3070-wildmatch.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@ test_description='wildmatch tests'
 
 . ./test-lib.sh
 
+# Disable expensive chain-lint tests; all of the tests in this script
+# are variants of a few trivial test-tool invocations, and there are a lot of
+# them.
+GIT_TEST_CHAIN_LINT_HARDER_DEFAULT=0
+
 should_create_test_file() {
 	file=$1
 
diff --git a/t/test-lib.sh b/t/test-lib.sh
index d3f6af6a65451c..fac144adcec7a1 100644
--- a/t/test-lib.sh
+++ b/t/test-lib.sh
@@ -945,8 +945,11 @@ test_run_ () {
 		trace=
 		# 117 is magic because it is unlikely to match the exit
 		# code of other programs
-		if $(printf '%s\n' "$1" | sed -f "$GIT_BUILD_DIR/t/chainlint.sed" | grep -q '?![A-Z][A-Z]*?!') ||
-			test "OK-117" != "$(test_eval_ "(exit 117) && $1${LF}${LF}echo OK-\$?" 3>&1)"
+		if test "OK-117" != "$(test_eval_ "(exit 117) && $1${LF}${LF}echo OK-\$?" 3>&1)" ||
+		   {
+			test "${GIT_TEST_CHAIN_LINT_HARDER:-${GIT_TEST_CHAIN_LINT_HARDER_DEFAULT:-1}}" != 0 &&
+			$(printf '%s\n' "$1" | sed -f "$GIT_BUILD_DIR/t/chainlint.sed" | grep -q '?![A-Z][A-Z]*?!')
+		   }
 		then
 			BUG "broken &&-chain or run-away HERE-DOC: $1"
 		fi