diff --git a/src/pkgcheck/addons/git.py b/src/pkgcheck/addons/git.py
index 7b2435ace..1874e8a62 100644
--- a/src/pkgcheck/addons/git.py
+++ b/src/pkgcheck/addons/git.py
@@ -536,9 +536,14 @@ def __init__(self, *args):
     def _gitignore(self):
         """Load a repo's .gitignore and .git/info/exclude files for path matching."""
         patterns = []
-        for path in (".gitignore", ".git/info/exclude"):
+        paths = (
+            pjoin(self.options.target_repo.location, ".gitignore"),
+            pjoin(self.options.target_repo.location, ".git/info/exclude"),
+            pjoin(os.environ.get("XDG_CONFIG_HOME", os.path.expanduser("~/.config")), "git/ignore"),
+        )
+        for path in paths:
             try:
-                with open(pjoin(self.options.target_repo.location, path)) as f:
+                with open(path) as f:
                     patterns.extend(f)
             except (FileNotFoundError, IOError):
                 pass
diff --git a/tests/addons/test_git.py b/tests/addons/test_git.py
index b896304d9..596a2b34a 100644
--- a/tests/addons/test_git.py
+++ b/tests/addons/test_git.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 from pkgcore.ebuild.atom import atom as atom_cls
 from pkgcore.restrictions import packages
 from snakeoil.cli.exceptions import UserException
+from snakeoil.contexts import os_environ
 from snakeoil.fileutils import touch
 from snakeoil.osutils import pjoin
 from snakeoil.process import CommandNotFound, find_binary
@@ -466,6 +467,9 @@ def _setup(self, tool, tmp_path, repo):
         self.addon = git.GitAddon(options)
         self.cache_file = self.addon.cache_file(self.repo)
 
+        with os_environ(XDG_CONFIG_HOME=self.cache_dir):
+            yield
+
     def test_git_unavailable(self, tool):
         args = ["scan", "--cache-dir", self.cache_dir, "--repo", self.repo.location]
         options, _ = tool.parse_args(args)