diff --git a/Documentation/config/core.txt b/Documentation/config/core.txt
index 5fa9e77214392e..93ffdee63f4e36 100644
--- a/Documentation/config/core.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config/core.txt
@@ -729,7 +729,15 @@ core.multiPackIndex::
 	information. Defaults to true.
 
 core.gvfs::
-	Enable the features needed for GVFS.
+	Enable the features needed for GVFS.  This value can be set to true
+	to indicate all features should be turned on or the bit values listed
+	below can be used to turn on specific features.
++
+--
+	GVFS_SKIP_SHA_ON_INDEX::
+		Bit value 1
+		Disables the calculation of the sha when writing the index
+--
 
 core.sparseCheckout::
 	Enable "sparse checkout" feature. See linkgit:git-sparse-checkout[1]
diff --git a/gvfs.h b/gvfs.h
index 011185dea93734..c75991530fa1fa 100644
--- a/gvfs.h
+++ b/gvfs.h
@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@
  * used for GVFS functionality
  */
 
+
+/*
+ * The list of bits in the core_gvfs setting
+ */
+#define GVFS_SKIP_SHA_ON_INDEX                      (1 << 0)
+
 void gvfs_load_config_value(const char *value);
 int gvfs_config_is_set(int mask);
 
diff --git a/repo-settings.c b/repo-settings.c
index 9f711c87753c1b..fb76ee4c69ca7e 100644
--- a/repo-settings.c
+++ b/repo-settings.c
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 #include "midx.h"
 #include "fsmonitor-ipc.h"
 #include "fsmonitor-settings.h"
+#include "gvfs.h"
 
 static void repo_cfg_bool(struct repository *r, const char *key, int *dest,
 			  int def)
@@ -94,6 +95,13 @@ void prepare_repo_settings(struct repository *r)
 		      r->settings.pack_use_bitmap_boundary_traversal);
 	repo_cfg_bool(r, "core.usereplacerefs", &r->settings.read_replace_refs, 1);
 
+	/*
+	 * For historical compatibility reasons, enable index.skipHash based
+	 * on a bit in core.gvfs.
+	 */
+	if (gvfs_config_is_set(GVFS_SKIP_SHA_ON_INDEX))
+		r->settings.index_skip_hash = 1;
+
 	/*
 	 * The GIT_TEST_MULTI_PACK_INDEX variable is special in that
 	 * either it *or* the config sets
diff --git a/t/t1016-read-tree-skip-sha-on-read.sh b/t/t1016-read-tree-skip-sha-on-read.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000000..5b76a80a0020dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t1016-read-tree-skip-sha-on-read.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+test_description='check that read-tree works with core.gvfs config value'
+
+. ./test-lib.sh
+. "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/lib-read-tree.sh
+
+test_expect_success setup '
+	echo one >a &&
+	git add a &&
+	git commit -m initial
+'
+test_expect_success 'read-tree without core.gvsf' '
+	read_tree_u_must_succeed -m -u HEAD
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'read-tree with core.gvfs set to 1' '
+	git config core.gvfs 1 &&
+	read_tree_u_must_succeed -m -u HEAD
+'
+
+test_done