diff --git a/contrib/scalar/Makefile b/contrib/scalar/Makefile
index f6f0036f0fa..231b1ee1796 100644
--- a/contrib/scalar/Makefile
+++ b/contrib/scalar/Makefile
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ QUIET_SUBDIR1  =
 
 ifneq ($(findstring s,$(MAKEFLAGS)),s)
 ifndef V
+	QUIET_GEN      = @echo '   ' GEN $@;
 	QUIET_SUBDIR0  = +@subdir=
 	QUIET_SUBDIR1  = ;$(NO_SUBDIR) echo '   ' SUBDIR $$subdir; \
 			 $(MAKE) $(PRINT_DIR) -C $$subdir
@@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ include ../../config.mak.uname
 TARGETS = scalar$(X) scalar.o
 GITLIBS = ../../common-main.o ../../libgit.a ../../xdiff/lib.a
 
-all: scalar$(X)
+all: scalar$(X) ../../bin-wrappers/scalar
 
 $(GITLIBS):
 	$(QUIET_SUBDIR0)../.. $(QUIET_SUBDIR1) $(subst ../../,,$@)
@@ -29,6 +30,16 @@ $(TARGETS): $(GITLIBS) scalar.c
 	$(QUIET_SUBDIR0)../.. $(QUIET_SUBDIR1) $(patsubst %,contrib/scalar/%,$@)
 
 clean:
-	$(RM) $(TARGETS)
+	$(RM) $(TARGETS) ../../bin-wrappers/scalar
 
-.PHONY: $(GITLIBS) all clean FORCE
+../../bin-wrappers/scalar: ../../wrap-for-bin.sh Makefile
+	@mkdir -p ../../bin-wrappers
+	$(QUIET_GEN)sed -e '1s|#!.*/sh|#!$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)|' \
+	     -e 's|@@BUILD_DIR@@|$(shell cd ../.. && pwd)|' \
+	     -e 's|@@PROG@@|contrib/scalar/scalar$(X)|' < $< > $@ && \
+	chmod +x $@
+
+test: all
+	$(MAKE) -C t
+
+.PHONY: $(GITLIBS) all clean test FORCE
diff --git a/contrib/scalar/t/Makefile b/contrib/scalar/t/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6170672bb37
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/scalar/t/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+# Run scalar tests
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2005,2021 Junio C Hamano, Johannes Schindelin
+#
+
+-include ../../../config.mak.autogen
+-include ../../../config.mak
+
+SHELL_PATH ?= $(SHELL)
+PERL_PATH ?= /usr/bin/perl
+RM ?= rm -f
+PROVE ?= prove
+DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET ?= test
+TEST_LINT ?= test-lint
+
+ifdef TEST_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
+TEST_RESULTS_DIRECTORY = $(TEST_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY)/test-results
+else
+TEST_RESULTS_DIRECTORY = ../../../t/test-results
+endif
+
+# Shell quote;
+SHELL_PATH_SQ = $(subst ','\'',$(SHELL_PATH))
+PERL_PATH_SQ = $(subst ','\'',$(PERL_PATH))
+TEST_RESULTS_DIRECTORY_SQ = $(subst ','\'',$(TEST_RESULTS_DIRECTORY))
+
+T = $(sort $(wildcard t[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]-*.sh))
+
+all: $(DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET)
+
+test: $(TEST_LINT)
+	$(MAKE) aggregate-results-and-cleanup
+
+prove: $(TEST_LINT)
+	@echo "*** prove ***"; GIT_CONFIG=.git/config $(PROVE) --exec '$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)' $(GIT_PROVE_OPTS) $(T) :: $(GIT_TEST_OPTS)
+	$(MAKE) clean-except-prove-cache
+
+$(T):
+	@echo "*** $@ ***"; GIT_CONFIG=.git/config '$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)' $@ $(GIT_TEST_OPTS)
+
+clean-except-prove-cache:
+	$(RM) -r 'trash directory'.* '$(TEST_RESULTS_DIRECTORY_SQ)'
+	$(RM) -r valgrind/bin
+
+clean: clean-except-prove-cache
+	$(RM) .prove
+
+test-lint: test-lint-duplicates test-lint-executable test-lint-shell-syntax
+
+test-lint-duplicates:
+	@dups=`echo $(T) | tr ' ' '\n' | sed 's/-.*//' | sort | uniq -d` && \
+		test -z "$$dups" || { \
+		echo >&2 "duplicate test numbers:" $$dups; exit 1; }
+
+test-lint-executable:
+	@bad=`for i in $(T); do test -x "$$i" || echo $$i; done` && \
+		test -z "$$bad" || { \
+		echo >&2 "non-executable tests:" $$bad; exit 1; }
+
+test-lint-shell-syntax:
+	@'$(PERL_PATH_SQ)' ../../../t/check-non-portable-shell.pl $(T)
+
+aggregate-results-and-cleanup: $(T)
+	$(MAKE) aggregate-results
+	$(MAKE) clean
+
+aggregate-results:
+	for f in '$(TEST_RESULTS_DIRECTORY_SQ)'/t*-*.counts; do \
+		echo "$$f"; \
+	done | '$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)' ../../../t/aggregate-results.sh
+
+valgrind:
+	$(MAKE) GIT_TEST_OPTS="$(GIT_TEST_OPTS) --valgrind"
+
+test-results:
+	mkdir -p test-results
+
+.PHONY: $(T) aggregate-results clean valgrind
diff --git a/contrib/scalar/t/t9099-scalar.sh b/contrib/scalar/t/t9099-scalar.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..16f2b72b126
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/scalar/t/t9099-scalar.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+test_description='test the `scalar` command'
+
+TEST_DIRECTORY=$PWD/../../../t
+export TEST_DIRECTORY
+
+# Make it work with --no-bin-wrappers
+PATH=$PWD/..:$PATH
+
+. ../../../t/test-lib.sh
+
+test_expect_success 'scalar shows a usage' '
+	test_expect_code 129 scalar -h
+'
+
+test_done
