diff --git a/builtin/help.c b/builtin/help.c
index 83f71d6765e..b33ef27ac79 100644
--- a/builtin/help.c
+++ b/builtin/help.c
@@ -38,7 +38,12 @@ static const char *html_path;
 
 static int show_all = 0;
 static int show_guides = 0;
-static int show_config;
+enum show_config_type {
+	SHOW_CONFIG_UNSET = 0,
+	SHOW_CONFIG_HUMAN,
+	SHOW_CONFIG_VARS,
+	SHOW_CONFIG_SECTIONS,
+} show_config;
 static int verbose = 1;
 static unsigned int colopts;
 static enum help_format help_format = HELP_FORMAT_NONE;
@@ -48,7 +53,10 @@ static struct option builtin_help_options[] = {
 	OPT_HIDDEN_BOOL(0, "exclude-guides", &exclude_guides, N_("exclude guides")),
 	OPT_BOOL('g', "guides", &show_guides, N_("print list of useful guides")),
 	OPT_BOOL('c', "config", &show_config, N_("print all configuration variable names")),
-	OPT_SET_INT_F(0, "config-for-completion", &show_config, "", 2, PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN),
+	OPT_SET_INT_F(0, "config-for-completion-vars", &show_config, "",
+		      SHOW_CONFIG_VARS, PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN),
+	OPT_SET_INT_F(0, "config-for-completion-sections", &show_config, "",
+		      SHOW_CONFIG_SECTIONS, PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN),
 	OPT_SET_INT('m', "man", &help_format, N_("show man page"), HELP_FORMAT_MAN),
 	OPT_SET_INT('w', "web", &help_format, N_("show manual in web browser"),
 			HELP_FORMAT_WEB),
@@ -73,7 +81,7 @@ struct slot_expansion {
 	int found;
 };
 
-static void list_config_help(int for_human)
+static void list_config_help(enum show_config_type type)
 {
 	struct slot_expansion slot_expansions[] = {
 		{ "advice", "*", list_config_advices },
@@ -91,6 +99,8 @@ static void list_config_help(int for_human)
 	const char **p;
 	struct slot_expansion *e;
 	struct string_list keys = STRING_LIST_INIT_DUP;
+	struct string_list keys_uniq = STRING_LIST_INIT_DUP;
+	struct string_list_item *item;
 	int i;
 
 	for (p = config_name_list; *p; p++) {
@@ -121,34 +131,48 @@ static void list_config_help(int for_human)
 	for (i = 0; i < keys.nr; i++) {
 		const char *var = keys.items[i].string;
 		const char *wildcard, *tag, *cut;
+		const char *dot = NULL;
+		struct strbuf sb = STRBUF_INIT;
 
-		if (for_human) {
+		switch (type) {
+		case SHOW_CONFIG_HUMAN:
 			puts(var);
 			continue;
+		case SHOW_CONFIG_SECTIONS:
+			dot = strchr(var, '.');
+			break;
+		case SHOW_CONFIG_VARS:
+			break;
+		case SHOW_CONFIG_UNSET:
+			BUG("should not get SHOW_CONFIG_UNSET here");
 		}
-
 		wildcard = strchr(var, '*');
 		tag = strchr(var, '<');
 
-		if (!wildcard && !tag) {
-			puts(var);
+		if (!dot && !wildcard && !tag) {
+			string_list_append(&keys_uniq, var);
 			continue;
 		}
 
-		if (wildcard && !tag)
+		if (dot)
+			cut = dot;
+		else if (wildcard && !tag)
 			cut = wildcard;
 		else if (!wildcard && tag)
 			cut = tag;
 		else
 			cut = wildcard < tag ? wildcard : tag;
 
-		/*
-		 * We may produce duplicates, but that's up to
-		 * git-completion.bash to handle
-		 */
-		printf("%.*s\n", (int)(cut - var), var);
+		strbuf_add(&sb, var, cut - var);
+		string_list_append(&keys_uniq, sb.buf);
+		strbuf_release(&sb);
+
 	}
 	string_list_clear(&keys, 0);
+	string_list_remove_duplicates(&keys_uniq, 0);
+	for_each_string_list_item(item, &keys_uniq)
+		puts(item->string);
+	string_list_clear(&keys_uniq, 0);
 }
 
 static enum help_format parse_help_format(const char *format)
@@ -588,13 +612,16 @@ int cmd_help(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		return 0;
 	}
 
-	if (show_config) {
-		int for_human = show_config == 1;
-
-		if (for_human)
-			setup_pager();
-		list_config_help(for_human);
-		if (for_human)
+	switch (show_config) {
+	case SHOW_CONFIG_UNSET:
+		break;
+	case SHOW_CONFIG_HUMAN:
+		setup_pager();
+		/* fallthrough */
+	case SHOW_CONFIG_VARS:
+	case SHOW_CONFIG_SECTIONS:
+		list_config_help(show_config);
+		if (show_config == SHOW_CONFIG_HUMAN)
 			printf("\n%s\n", _("'git help config' for more information"));
 
 		return 0;
diff --git a/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash b/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash
index 8108eda1e86..19b8a172878 100644
--- a/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash
+++ b/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash
@@ -2503,7 +2503,14 @@ __git_config_vars=
 __git_compute_config_vars ()
 {
 	test -n "$__git_config_vars" ||
-	__git_config_vars="$(git help --config-for-completion | sort -u)"
+	__git_config_vars="$(git help --config-for-completion-vars)"
+}
+
+__git_config_sections=
+__git_compute_config_sections ()
+{
+	test -n "$__git_config_sections" ||
+	__git_config_sections="$(git help --config-for-completion-sections)"
 }
 
 # Completes possible values of various configuration variables.
@@ -2717,16 +2724,8 @@ __git_complete_config_variable_name ()
 		__gitcomp "$__git_config_vars" "" "$cur_" "$sfx"
 		;;
 	*)
-		__git_compute_config_vars
-		__gitcomp "$(echo "$__git_config_vars" |
-				awk -F . '{
-					sections[$1] = 1
-				}
-				END {
-					for (s in sections)
-						print s "."
-				}
-				')" "" "$cur_"
+		__git_compute_config_sections
+		__gitcomp "$__git_config_sections" "" "$cur_" "."
 		;;
 	esac
 }
diff --git a/t/t0012-help.sh b/t/t0012-help.sh
index 68e7f57470e..6d169ae3cbd 100755
--- a/t/t0012-help.sh
+++ b/t/t0012-help.sh
@@ -94,6 +94,30 @@ test_expect_success 'git help -c' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'git help --config-for-completion-vars' '
+	git help -c >human &&
+	grep -E \
+	     -e "^[^.]+\.[^.]+$" \
+	     -e "^[^.]+\.[^.]+\.[^.]+$" human |
+	     sed -e "s/\*.*//" -e "s/<.*//" |
+	     sort -u >human.munged &&
+
+	git help --config-for-completion-vars >vars &&
+	test_cmp human.munged vars
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'git help --config-for-completion-sections' '
+	git help -c >human &&
+	grep -E \
+	     -e "^[^.]+\.[^.]+$" \
+	     -e "^[^.]+\.[^.]+\.[^.]+$" human |
+	     sed -e "s/\..*//" |
+	     sort -u >human.munged &&
+
+	git help --config-for-completion-sections >sections &&
+	test_cmp human.munged sections
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'generate builtin list' '
 	git --list-cmds=builtins >builtins
 '
