diff --git a/dir.c b/dir.c
index 5aa6fbad0b..ea78f60623 100644
--- a/dir.c
+++ b/dir.c
@@ -3076,6 +3076,15 @@ char *git_url_basename(const char *repo, int is_bundle, int is_bare)
 			end--;
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * It should not be possible to overflow `ptrdiff_t` by passing in an
+	 * insanely long URL, but GCC does not know that and will complain
+	 * without this check.
+	 */
+	if (end - start < 0)
+		die(_("No directory name could be guessed.\n"
+		      "Please specify a directory on the command line"));
+
 	/*
 	 * Strip trailing port number if we've got only a
 	 * hostname (that is, there is no dir separator but a