diff --git a/t/t9835-git-p4-metadata-encoding-python2.sh b/t/t9835-git-p4-metadata-encoding-python2.sh
index 036bf79c6674f6f1f0d667c7270674168428ffee..6116f806f631157aca7de6dbd33dcd94bbefb8aa 100755
--- a/t/t9835-git-p4-metadata-encoding-python2.sh
+++ b/t/t9835-git-p4-metadata-encoding-python2.sh
@@ -8,29 +8,29 @@ failing, and produces maximally sane output in git.'
 
 . ./lib-git-p4.sh
 
-python_target_version='2'
-
 ###############################
 ## SECTION REPEATED IN t9836 ##
 ###############################
 
-# Please note: this test calls "git-p4.py" rather than "git-p4", because the
-# latter references a specific path so we can't easily force it to run under
-# the python version we need to.
-
-python_major_version=$(python -V 2>&1 | cut -c  8)
-python_target_binary=$(which python$python_target_version)
-if ! test "$python_major_version" = "$python_target_version" && test "$python_target_binary"
+# These tests are specific to Python 2. Write a custom script that executes
+# git-p4 directly with the Python 2 interpreter to ensure that we use that
+# version even if Git was compiled with Python 3.
+python_target_binary=$(which python2)
+if test -n "$python_target_binary"
 then
 	mkdir temp_python
-	PATH="$(pwd)/temp_python:$PATH" && export PATH
-	ln -s $python_target_binary temp_python/python
+	PATH="$(pwd)/temp_python:$PATH"
+	export PATH
+
+	write_script temp_python/git-p4-python2 <<-EOF
+	exec "$python_target_binary" "$(git --exec-path)/git-p4" "\$@"
+	EOF
 fi
 
-python_major_version=$(python -V 2>&1 | cut -c  8)
-if ! test "$python_major_version" = "$python_target_version"
+git p4-python2 >err
+if ! grep 'valid commands' err
 then
-	skip_all="skipping python$python_target_version-specific git p4 tests; python$python_target_version not available"
+	skip_all="skipping python2 git p4 tests; python2 not available"
 	test_done
 fi
 
@@ -81,14 +81,14 @@ test_expect_success 'init depot' '
 test_expect_success 'clone non-utf8 repo with strict encoding' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	test_must_fail git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=strict p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all 2>err &&
+	test_must_fail git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=strict p4-python2 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all 2>err &&
 	grep "Decoding perforce metadata failed!" err
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'check utf-8 contents with passthrough strategy' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=passthrough p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=passthrough p4-python2 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check utf-8 contents with passthrough strategy' '
 test_expect_success 'check latin-1 contents corrupted in git with passthrough strategy' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=passthrough p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=passthrough p4-python2 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check latin-1 contents corrupted in git with passthrough st
 test_expect_success 'check utf-8 contents with fallback strategy' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4-python2 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check utf-8 contents with fallback strategy' '
 test_expect_success 'check latin-1 contents with fallback strategy' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4-python2 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check latin-1 contents with fallback strategy' '
 test_expect_success 'check cp-1252 contents with fallback strategy' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4-python2 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check cp-1252 contents with fallback strategy' '
 test_expect_success 'check cp850 contents parsed with correct fallback' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback -c git-p4.metadataFallbackEncoding=cp850 p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback -c git-p4.metadataFallbackEncoding=cp850 p4-python2 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check cp850 contents parsed with correct fallback' '
 test_expect_success 'check cp850-only contents escaped when cp1252 is fallback' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4-python2 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check cp850-only contents escaped when cp1252 is fallback'
 test_expect_success 'check cp-1252 contents on later sync after clone with fallback strategy' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4-python2 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$cli" &&
 		P4USER=cp1252_author &&
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check cp-1252 contents on later sync after clone with fallb
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 
-		git p4.py sync --branch=master &&
+		git p4-python2 sync --branch=master &&
 
 		git log p4/master >actual &&
 		grep "sœme more cp-1252 tæxt" actual &&
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check cp-1252 contents on later sync after clone with fallb
 test_expect_success 'passthrough (latin-1 contents corrupted in git) is the default with python2' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=passthrough p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=passthrough p4-python2 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
diff --git a/t/t9836-git-p4-metadata-encoding-python3.sh b/t/t9836-git-p4-metadata-encoding-python3.sh
index 63350dc4b5c6262480cd0be8fd88fba714c55428..5e5217a66b4fdb3c7fcf073a50952c7e9009e9fe 100755
--- a/t/t9836-git-p4-metadata-encoding-python3.sh
+++ b/t/t9836-git-p4-metadata-encoding-python3.sh
@@ -8,29 +8,29 @@ failing, and produces maximally sane output in git.'
 
 . ./lib-git-p4.sh
 
-python_target_version='3'
-
 ###############################
 ## SECTION REPEATED IN t9835 ##
 ###############################
 
-# Please note: this test calls "git-p4.py" rather than "git-p4", because the
-# latter references a specific path so we can't easily force it to run under
-# the python version we need to.
-
-python_major_version=$(python -V 2>&1 | cut -c  8)
-python_target_binary=$(which python$python_target_version)
-if ! test "$python_major_version" = "$python_target_version" && test "$python_target_binary"
+# These tests are specific to Python 3. Write a custom script that executes
+# git-p4 directly with the Python 3 interpreter to ensure that we use that
+# version even if Git was compiled with Python 2.
+python_target_binary=$(which python3)
+if test -n "$python_target_binary"
 then
 	mkdir temp_python
-	PATH="$(pwd)/temp_python:$PATH" && export PATH
-	ln -s $python_target_binary temp_python/python
+	PATH="$(pwd)/temp_python:$PATH"
+	export PATH
+
+	write_script temp_python/git-p4-python3 <<-EOF
+	exec "$python_target_binary" "$(git --exec-path)/git-p4" "\$@"
+	EOF
 fi
 
-python_major_version=$(python -V 2>&1 | cut -c  8)
-if ! test "$python_major_version" = "$python_target_version"
+git p4-python3 >err
+if ! grep 'valid commands' err
 then
-	skip_all="skipping python$python_target_version-specific git p4 tests; python$python_target_version not available"
+	skip_all="skipping python3 git p4 tests; python3 not available"
 	test_done
 fi
 
@@ -81,14 +81,14 @@ test_expect_success 'init depot' '
 test_expect_success 'clone non-utf8 repo with strict encoding' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	test_must_fail git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=strict p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all 2>err &&
+	test_must_fail git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=strict p4-python3 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all 2>err &&
 	grep "Decoding perforce metadata failed!" err
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'check utf-8 contents with passthrough strategy' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=passthrough p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=passthrough p4-python3 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check utf-8 contents with passthrough strategy' '
 test_expect_success 'check latin-1 contents corrupted in git with passthrough strategy' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=passthrough p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=passthrough p4-python3 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check latin-1 contents corrupted in git with passthrough st
 test_expect_success 'check utf-8 contents with fallback strategy' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4-python3 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check utf-8 contents with fallback strategy' '
 test_expect_success 'check latin-1 contents with fallback strategy' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4-python3 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check latin-1 contents with fallback strategy' '
 test_expect_success 'check cp-1252 contents with fallback strategy' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4-python3 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check cp-1252 contents with fallback strategy' '
 test_expect_success 'check cp850 contents parsed with correct fallback' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback -c git-p4.metadataFallbackEncoding=cp850 p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback -c git-p4.metadataFallbackEncoding=cp850 p4-python3 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check cp850 contents parsed with correct fallback' '
 test_expect_success 'check cp850-only contents escaped when cp1252 is fallback' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4-python3 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check cp850-only contents escaped when cp1252 is fallback'
 test_expect_success 'check cp-1252 contents on later sync after clone with fallback strategy' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git -c git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy=fallback p4-python3 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$cli" &&
 		P4USER=cp1252_author &&
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check cp-1252 contents on later sync after clone with fallb
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 
-		git p4.py sync --branch=master &&
+		git p4-python3 sync --branch=master &&
 
 		git log p4/master >actual &&
 		grep "sœme more cp-1252 tæxt" actual &&
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ test_expect_success 'check cp-1252 contents on later sync after clone with fallb
 test_expect_success 'fallback (both utf-8 and cp-1252 contents handled) is the default with python3' '
 	test_when_finished cleanup_git &&
 	test_when_finished remove_user_cache &&
-	git p4.py clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
+	git p4-python3 clone --dest="$git" //depot@all &&
 	(
 		cd "$git" &&
 		git log >actual &&
