diff --git a/bitbake/README b/bitbake/README
index a5f5c1b64f..bdb1e81dc1 100644
--- a/bitbake/README
+++ b/bitbake/README
@@ -45,8 +45,7 @@ it has so many corner cases. The datastore has many tests too. Testing with the
 recommended before submitting patches, particularly to the fetcher and datastore. We also
 appreciate new test cases and may require them for more obscure issues.
 
-To run the tests "zstd" and "git" must be installed. Git must be correctly configured, in
-particular the user.email and user.name values must be set.
+To run the tests "zstd" and "git" must be installed.
 
 The assumption is made that this testsuite is run from an initialized OpenEmbedded build
 environment (i.e. `source oe-init-build-env` is used). If this is not the case, run the
diff --git a/bitbake/lib/bb/tests/fetch.py b/bitbake/lib/bb/tests/fetch.py
index 871c174e82..8ca7e6c155 100644
--- a/bitbake/lib/bb/tests/fetch.py
+++ b/bitbake/lib/bb/tests/fetch.py
@@ -429,9 +429,15 @@ class FetcherTest(unittest.TestCase):
         # a common setup is to use other default
         # branch than master.
         self.git(['checkout', '-b', 'master'], cwd=cwd)
-        if not self.git(['config', 'user.email'], cwd=cwd):
+
+        try:
+            self.git(['config', 'user.email'], cwd=cwd)
+        except bb.process.ExecutionError:
             self.git(['config', 'user.email', 'you@example.com'], cwd=cwd)
-        if not self.git(['config', 'user.name'], cwd=cwd):
+
+        try:
+            self.git(['config', 'user.name'], cwd=cwd)
+        except bb.process.ExecutionError:
             self.git(['config', 'user.name', 'Your Name'], cwd=cwd)
 
 class MirrorUriTest(FetcherTest):
@@ -3038,7 +3044,7 @@ class FetchPremirroronlyLocalTest(FetcherTest):
         self.mirrorname = "git2_git.fake.repo.bitbake.tar.gz"
         recipeurl = "git:/git.fake.repo/bitbake"
         os.makedirs(self.gitdir)
-        self.git("init", self.gitdir)
+        self.git_init(cwd=self.gitdir)
         for i in range(0):
             self.git_new_commit()
         bb.process.run('tar -czvf {} .'.format(os.path.join(self.mirrordir, self.mirrorname)), cwd =  self.gitdir)