diff --git a/package/pkg-download.mk b/package/pkg-download.mk
index 30eeb6b1fc..9047e99f86 100644
--- a/package/pkg-download.mk
+++ b/package/pkg-download.mk
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ export LOCALFILES := $(call qstrip,$(BR2_LOCALFILES))
 
 # Version of the format of the archives we generate in the corresponding
 # download backend:
-BR_FMT_VERSION_git = -br1
+BR_FMT_VERSION_git = -br2
 BR_FMT_VERSION_svn = -br3
 
 DL_WRAPPER = support/download/dl-wrapper
diff --git a/support/download/git b/support/download/git
index 6654d98a00..8134c07214 100755
--- a/support/download/git
+++ b/support/download/git
@@ -226,6 +226,66 @@ if [ ${large_file} -eq 1 ]; then
     fi
 fi
 
+# Find files that are affected by the export-subst git-attribute.
+# There might be a .gitattribute at the root of the repository, as well
+# as in any arbitrary sub-directory, whether from the master repository
+# or a submodule.
+# "git check-attr -z" outputs results using \0 as separator for everything,
+# so there is no difference between field or records (but there is a
+# trailing \0):
+#   path_1\0attr_name\0attr_state\0path_2\0attr_name\0attr_state\0....
+mapfile -d "" files < <(
+    set -o pipefail  # Constrained to this sub-shell
+    find . -print0 \
+    |_plain_git check-attr --stdin -z export-subst \
+    |(i=0
+      while read -r -d "" val; do
+        case "$((i++%3))" in
+          (0)   path="${val}";;
+          (1)   ;; # Attribute name, always "export-subst", as requested
+          (2)
+            if [ "${val}" = "set" ]; then
+                printf "%s\0" "${path}"
+            fi;;
+        esac
+      done
+     )
+)
+# Replace format hints in those files. Always use the master repository
+# as the source of the git metadata, even for files found in submodules
+# as this is the most practical: there is no way to chdir() in (g)awk,
+# and recomputing GIT_DIR for each submodule would really be tedious...
+# There might be any arbitrary number of hints on each line, so iterate
+# over those one by one.
+for f in "${files[@]}"; do
+    TZ=UTC \
+    LC_ALL=C \
+    GIT_DIR="${git_cache}/.git" \
+    awk -v GIT="${GIT}" '
+    {
+        l = $(0);
+        while( (i = match(l, /\$Format:[^\$]+\$/)) > 0 ) {
+            len = RLENGTH;
+            printf("%s", substr(l, 1, i-1) );
+            fmt = substr(l, i, RLENGTH);
+            pretty = substr(fmt, 9, length(fmt)-9);
+            cmd = GIT " -c core.abbrev=40 log -s -n1 --pretty=format:'\''" pretty "'\''";
+            while ( (cmd | getline replace) > 0) {
+                printf("%s", replace);
+            }
+            ret = close(cmd);
+            if (ret != 0) {
+                printf("%s:%d: error while executing command \"%s\"\n", FILENAME, NR, cmd) > "/dev/stderr";
+                exit 1;
+            }
+            l = substr(l, i+len);
+        }
+        printf("%s\n", l);
+    }
+    ' "${f}" >"${f}.br-temp"
+    mv -f "${f}.br-temp" "${f}"
+done
+
 popd >/dev/null
 
 # Generate the archive.