diff --git a/builtin/pack-objects.c b/builtin/pack-objects.c
index 124b1bafc4..507d381153 100644
--- a/builtin/pack-objects.c
+++ b/builtin/pack-objects.c
@@ -3331,6 +3331,7 @@ int cmd_pack_objects(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 
 	read_replace_refs = 0;
 
+	sparse = git_env_bool("GIT_TEST_PACK_SPARSE", 0);
 	reset_pack_idx_option(&pack_idx_opts);
 	git_config(git_pack_config, NULL);
 
diff --git a/t/README b/t/README
index 28711cc508..8b6dfe1864 100644
--- a/t/README
+++ b/t/README
@@ -342,6 +342,10 @@ GIT_TEST_INDEX_VERSION=<n> exercises the index read/write code path
 for the index version specified.  Can be set to any valid version
 (currently 2, 3, or 4).
 
+GIT_TEST_PACK_SPARSE=<boolean> if enabled will default the pack-objects
+builtin to use the sparse object walk. This can still be overridden by
+the --no-sparse command-line argument.
+
 GIT_TEST_PRELOAD_INDEX=<boolean> exercises the preload-index code path
 by overriding the minimum number of cache entries required per thread.
 
diff --git a/t/t5322-pack-objects-sparse.sh b/t/t5322-pack-objects-sparse.sh
index 3233fafc90..7124b5581a 100755
--- a/t/t5322-pack-objects-sparse.sh
+++ b/t/t5322-pack-objects-sparse.sh
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ test_expect_success 'setup repo' '
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'non-sparse pack-objects' '
-	git pack-objects --stdout --revs <packinput.txt >nonsparse.pack &&
+	git pack-objects --stdout --revs --no-sparse <packinput.txt >nonsparse.pack &&
 	git index-pack -o nonsparse.idx nonsparse.pack &&
 	git show-index <nonsparse.idx | awk "{print \$2}" >nonsparse_objects.txt &&
 	test_cmp expect_objects.txt nonsparse_objects.txt
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ test_expect_success 'duplicate a folder from f3 and commit to topic1' '
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'non-sparse pack-objects' '
-	git pack-objects --stdout --revs <packinput.txt >nonsparse.pack &&
+	git pack-objects --stdout --revs --no-sparse <packinput.txt >nonsparse.pack &&
 	git index-pack -o nonsparse.idx nonsparse.pack &&
 	git show-index <nonsparse.idx | awk "{print \$2}" >nonsparse_objects.txt &&
 	comm -1 -2 required_objects.txt nonsparse_objects.txt >nonsparse_required_objects.txt &&