diff --git a/Documentation/fetch-options.txt b/Documentation/fetch-options.txt
index 495bc8ab5a..b65a758661 100644
--- a/Documentation/fetch-options.txt
+++ b/Documentation/fetch-options.txt
@@ -64,6 +64,15 @@ documented in linkgit:git-config[1].
 --dry-run::
 	Show what would be done, without making any changes.
 
+ifndef::git-pull[]
+--[no-]write-fetch-head::
+	Write the list of remote refs fetched in the `FETCH_HEAD`
+	file directly under `$GIT_DIR`.  This is the default.
+	Passing `--no-write-fetch-head` from the command line tells
+	Git not to write the file.  Under `--dry-run` option, the
+	file is never written.
+endif::git-pull[]
+
 -f::
 --force::
 	When 'git fetch' is used with `<src>:<dst>` refspec it may
diff --git a/builtin/fetch.c b/builtin/fetch.c
index c8b9366d3c..cb38e6f5ec 100644
--- a/builtin/fetch.c
+++ b/builtin/fetch.c
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ static int prune_tags = -1; /* unspecified */
 #define PRUNE_TAGS_BY_DEFAULT 0 /* do we prune tags by default? */
 
 static int all, append, dry_run, force, keep, multiple, update_head_ok;
+static int write_fetch_head = 1;
 static int verbosity, deepen_relative, set_upstream;
 static int progress = -1;
 static int enable_auto_gc = 1;
@@ -162,6 +163,8 @@ static struct option builtin_fetch_options[] = {
 		    PARSE_OPT_OPTARG, option_fetch_parse_recurse_submodules),
 	OPT_BOOL(0, "dry-run", &dry_run,
 		 N_("dry run")),
+	OPT_BOOL(0, "write-fetch-head", &write_fetch_head,
+		 N_("write fetched references to the FETCH_HEAD file")),
 	OPT_BOOL('k', "keep", &keep, N_("keep downloaded pack")),
 	OPT_BOOL('u', "update-head-ok", &update_head_ok,
 		    N_("allow updating of HEAD ref")),
@@ -895,7 +898,9 @@ static int store_updated_refs(const char *raw_url, const char *remote_name,
 	const char *what, *kind;
 	struct ref *rm;
 	char *url;
-	const char *filename = dry_run ? "/dev/null" : git_path_fetch_head(the_repository);
+	const char *filename = (!write_fetch_head
+				? "/dev/null"
+				: git_path_fetch_head(the_repository));
 	int want_status;
 	int summary_width = transport_summary_width(ref_map);
 
@@ -1329,7 +1334,7 @@ static int do_fetch(struct transport *transport,
 	}
 
 	/* if not appending, truncate FETCH_HEAD */
-	if (!append && !dry_run) {
+	if (!append && write_fetch_head) {
 		retcode = truncate_fetch_head();
 		if (retcode)
 			goto cleanup;
@@ -1596,7 +1601,7 @@ static int fetch_multiple(struct string_list *list, int max_children)
 	int i, result = 0;
 	struct strvec argv = STRVEC_INIT;
 
-	if (!append && !dry_run) {
+	if (!append && write_fetch_head) {
 		int errcode = truncate_fetch_head();
 		if (errcode)
 			return errcode;
@@ -1797,6 +1802,10 @@ int cmd_fetch(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	if (depth || deepen_since || deepen_not.nr)
 		deepen = 1;
 
+	/* FETCH_HEAD never gets updated in --dry-run mode */
+	if (dry_run)
+		write_fetch_head = 0;
+
 	if (all) {
 		if (argc == 1)
 			die(_("fetch --all does not take a repository argument"));
diff --git a/t/t5510-fetch.sh b/t/t5510-fetch.sh
index 9850ecde5d..5bd1f953af 100755
--- a/t/t5510-fetch.sh
+++ b/t/t5510-fetch.sh
@@ -539,13 +539,24 @@ test_expect_success 'fetch into the current branch with --update-head-ok' '
 
 '
 
-test_expect_success 'fetch --dry-run' '
-
+test_expect_success 'fetch --dry-run does not touch FETCH_HEAD' '
 	rm -f .git/FETCH_HEAD &&
 	git fetch --dry-run . &&
 	! test -f .git/FETCH_HEAD
 '
 
+test_expect_success '--no-write-fetch-head does not touch FETCH_HEAD' '
+	rm -f .git/FETCH_HEAD &&
+	git fetch --no-write-fetch-head . &&
+	! test -f .git/FETCH_HEAD
+'
+
+test_expect_success '--write-fetch-head gets defeated by --dry-run' '
+	rm -f .git/FETCH_HEAD &&
+	git fetch --dry-run --write-fetch-head . &&
+	! test -f .git/FETCH_HEAD
+'
+
 test_expect_success "should be able to fetch with duplicate refspecs" '
 	mkdir dups &&
 	(
diff --git a/t/t5521-pull-options.sh b/t/t5521-pull-options.sh
index 159afa7ac8..db1a381cd9 100755
--- a/t/t5521-pull-options.sh
+++ b/t/t5521-pull-options.sh
@@ -85,6 +85,13 @@ test_expect_success 'git pull --cleanup errors early on invalid argument' '
 	test -s err)
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'git pull --no-write-fetch-head fails' '
+	mkdir clonedwfh &&
+	(cd clonedwfh && git init &&
+	test_expect_code 129 git pull --no-write-fetch-head "../parent" >out 2>err &&
+	test_must_be_empty out &&
+	test_i18ngrep "no-write-fetch-head" err)
+'
 
 test_expect_success 'git pull --force' '
 	mkdir clonedoldstyle &&
