diff --git a/.github/workflows/main.yml b/.github/workflows/main.yml
index 7f55f8b3a91d6caf95934af308a2bd35a19a62f1..83bf9b918ba1b90c778d1a72cdbfa9a97ef86bdf 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/main.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/main.yml
@@ -394,7 +394,7 @@ jobs:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
         vector:
-        - jobname: linux-musl
+        - jobname: linux-musl-meson
           image: alpine
           distro: alpine-latest
         # Supported until 2025-04-02.
diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 4976e18a0503298f38230f5ba7348675baf48664..f737e4177c24d21f08dfa5c2fba8aa082c4cf6b1 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ test:linux:
         CC: clang
       - jobname: pedantic
         image: fedora:latest
-      - jobname: linux-musl
+      - jobname: linux-musl-meson
         image: alpine:latest
       - jobname: linux-meson
         image: ubuntu:latest
diff --git a/ci/install-dependencies.sh b/ci/install-dependencies.sh
index d1cb9fa8785388b3674fcea4dd682abc0725c968..5ae80b0486c65833825352019b2873498e801db0 100755
--- a/ci/install-dependencies.sh
+++ b/ci/install-dependencies.sh
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ fi
 
 case "$distro" in
 alpine-*)
-	apk add --update shadow sudo build-base curl-dev openssl-dev expat-dev gettext \
+	apk add --update shadow sudo meson ninja-build gcc libc-dev curl-dev openssl-dev expat-dev gettext \
 		pcre2-dev python3 musl-libintl perl-utils ncurses \
 		apache2 apache2-http2 apache2-proxy apache2-ssl apache2-webdav apr-util-dbd_sqlite3 \
 		bash cvs gnupg perl-cgi perl-dbd-sqlite perl-io-tty >/dev/null
diff --git a/ci/lib.sh b/ci/lib.sh
index 8885ee3c3f86c62e8783d27756b8779bd491e7e6..71d85ae85a02e5a4389e133ed53f45a5042af36e 100755
--- a/ci/lib.sh
+++ b/ci/lib.sh
@@ -378,10 +378,7 @@ linux32)
 	CC=gcc
 	;;
 linux-musl)
-	CC=gcc
-	MAKEFLAGS="$MAKEFLAGS PYTHON_PATH=/usr/bin/python3 USE_LIBPCRE2=Yes"
-	MAKEFLAGS="$MAKEFLAGS NO_REGEX=Yes ICONV_OMITS_BOM=Yes"
-	MAKEFLAGS="$MAKEFLAGS GIT_TEST_UTF8_LOCALE=C.UTF-8"
+	MESONFLAGS="$MESONFLAGS -DGIT_TEST_UTF8_LOCALE=C.UTF-8"
 	;;
 linux-leaks|linux-reftable-leaks)
 	export SANITIZE=leak
diff --git a/ci/run-build-and-tests.sh b/ci/run-build-and-tests.sh
index 6c828c3b755153dab179f73346e7124bda49c90e..8f79ccf53e1e92f344e0e0117e93113e5610c3a2 100755
--- a/ci/run-build-and-tests.sh
+++ b/ci/run-build-and-tests.sh
@@ -54,7 +54,8 @@ case "$jobname" in
 	group "Configure" meson setup build . \
 		--warnlevel 2 --werror \
 		--wrap-mode nofallback \
-		-Dfuzzers=true
+		-Dfuzzers=true \
+		$MESONFLAGS
 	group "Build" meson compile -C build --
 	if test -n "$run_tests"
 	then
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 3e31648dc171d7149c296941591eb94516ca6c93..eadd8a99a3f2e65deb20c36945d0abb8106cf083 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -657,7 +657,7 @@ build_options_config.set('GIT_TEST_CMP_USE_COPIED_CONTEXT', '')
 build_options_config.set('GIT_TEST_INDEX_VERSION', '')
 build_options_config.set('GIT_TEST_OPTS', '')
 build_options_config.set('GIT_TEST_PERL_FATAL_WARNINGS', '')
-build_options_config.set('GIT_TEST_UTF8_LOCALE', '')
+build_options_config.set_quoted('GIT_TEST_UTF8_LOCALE', get_option('test_utf8_locale'))
 build_options_config.set_quoted('LOCALEDIR', fs.as_posix(get_option('prefix') / get_option('localedir')))
 build_options_config.set('GITWEBDIR', fs.as_posix(get_option('prefix') / get_option('datadir') / 'gitweb'))
 
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index c962c0a676172ed478333b9e56d1430ff9cf0af0..e9f8e990e3e88de5baea652825b4745c230473c4 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -99,5 +99,7 @@ option('tests', type: 'boolean', value: true,
   description: 'Enable building tests. This requires Perl, but is separate from the "perl" option such that you can build tests without Perl features enabled.')
 option('test_output_directory', type: 'string',
   description: 'Path to the directory used to store test outputs')
+option('test_utf8_locale', type: 'string',
+  description: 'Name of a UTF-8 locale used for testing.')
 option('fuzzers', type: 'boolean', value: false,
   description: 'Enable building fuzzers.')
