builtin/blame.c |  1 +
 cache.h         |  3 ++-
 date.c          | 10 +++++++---
 3 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/builtin/blame.c b/builtin/blame.c
index 21f42b0b62b8..4d87181dc6cd 100644
--- a/builtin/blame.c
+++ b/builtin/blame.c
@@ -2640,6 +2640,7 @@ parse_done:
 		   fewer display columns. */
 		blame_date_width = utf8_strwidth(_("4 years, 11 months ago")) + 1; /* add the null */
 		break;
+	case DATE_AUTO:
 	case DATE_NORMAL:
 		blame_date_width = sizeof("Thu Oct 19 16:00:04 2006 -0700");
 		break;
diff --git a/cache.h b/cache.h
index 6049f8671138..624817c20414 100644
--- a/cache.h
+++ b/cache.h
@@ -1223,7 +1223,8 @@ struct date_mode {
 		DATE_ISO8601_STRICT,
 		DATE_RFC2822,
 		DATE_STRFTIME,
-		DATE_RAW
+		DATE_RAW,
+		DATE_AUTO,
 	} type;
 	const char *strftime_fmt;
 	int local;
diff --git a/date.c b/date.c
index 7c9f76998ac7..c38414a3d968 100644
--- a/date.c
+++ b/date.c
@@ -184,13 +184,15 @@ const char *show_date(unsigned long time, int tz, const struct date_mode *mode)
 		return timebuf.buf;
 	}
 
-	if (mode->type == DATE_RELATIVE) {
+	if (mode->type == DATE_RELATIVE || mode->type == DATE_AUTO) {
 		struct timeval now;
 
 		strbuf_reset(&timebuf);
 		gettimeofday(&now, NULL);
-		show_date_relative(time, tz, &now, &timebuf);
-		return timebuf.buf;
+		if (mode->type != DATE_AUTO || time + 24*60*60 > now.tv_sec) {
+			show_date_relative(time, tz, &now, &timebuf);
+			return timebuf.buf;
+		}
 	}
 
 	tm = time_to_tm(time, tz);
@@ -792,6 +794,8 @@ static enum date_mode_type parse_date_type(const char *format, const char **end)
 		return DATE_RAW;
 	if (skip_prefix(format, "format", end))
 		return DATE_STRFTIME;
+	if (skip_prefix(format, "auto", end))
+		return DATE_AUTO;
 
 	die("unknown date format %s", format);
 }