diff --git a/Documentation/asciidoc.conf b/Documentation/asciidoc.conf
index 60f76f43edab75..08111e98ab3341 100644
--- a/Documentation/asciidoc.conf
+++ b/Documentation/asciidoc.conf
@@ -57,3 +57,15 @@ git-relative-html-prefix=
 [linkgit-inlinemacro]
 <a href="{git-relative-html-prefix}{target}.html">{target}{0?({0})}</a>
 endif::backend-xhtml11[]
+
+ifdef::backend-docbook[]
+ifdef::doctype-manpage[]
+[paradef-default]
+synopsis-style=template="verseparagraph",filter="sed -E 's!([\[ |()>]|^|\])([-=a-zA-Z0-9:+.]+)!\\1<literal>\\2</literal>!g;s!&lt;[-a-zA-Z0-9.]+&gt;!<emphasis>\\0</emphasis>!g'"
+endif::doctype-manpage[]
+endif::backend-docbook[]
+
+ifdef::backend-xhtml11[]
+[paradef-default]
+synopsis-style=template="verseparagraph",filter="sed -E 's!([\[ |()>]|^|\])([-=a-zA-Z0-9:+.]+)!\\1<code>\\2</code>!g;s!&lt;[-a-zA-Z0-9.]+&gt;!<em>\\0</em>!g'"
+endif::backend-xhtml11[]
diff --git a/Documentation/asciidoctor-extensions.rb b/Documentation/asciidoctor-extensions.rb
index d906a008039cf5..8c761274350421 100644
--- a/Documentation/asciidoctor-extensions.rb
+++ b/Documentation/asciidoctor-extensions.rb
@@ -39,10 +39,27 @@ def process document, output
         output
       end
     end
+
+    class SynopsisBlock < Asciidoctor::Extensions::BlockProcessor
+
+      use_dsl
+      named :synopsis
+      parse_content_as :simple
+
+      def process parent, reader, attrs
+        outlines = reader.lines.map do |l|
+          l.gsub(/([\[\] |()>]|^)([-a-zA-Z0-9:+=.]+)/, '\\1{empty}`\\2`{empty}')
+           .gsub(/(<[-a-zA-Z0-9.]+>)/, '__\\1__')
+           .gsub(']', ']{empty}')
+        end
+        create_block parent, :verse, outlines, attrs
+      end
+    end
   end
 end
 
 Asciidoctor::Extensions.register do
   inline_macro Git::Documentation::LinkGitProcessor, :linkgit
+  block Git::Documentation::SynopsisBlock
   postprocessor Git::Documentation::DocumentPostProcessor
 end
diff --git a/t/t0450-txt-doc-vs-help.sh b/t/t0450-txt-doc-vs-help.sh
index 69917d7b8459c6..ea54c10d88df42 100755
--- a/t/t0450-txt-doc-vs-help.sh
+++ b/t/t0450-txt-doc-vs-help.sh
@@ -56,17 +56,14 @@ txt_to_synopsis () {
 	fi &&
 	b2t="$(builtin_to_txt "$builtin")" &&
 	sed -n \
-		-e '/^\[verse\]$/,/^$/ {
-			/^$/d;
-			/^\[verse\]$/d;
-			s/_//g;
-			s/++//g;
-			s/`//g;
-			s/{litdd}/--/g;
-			s/'\''\(git[ a-z-]*\)'\''/\1/g;
-
-			p;
-		}' \
+                -E '/^\[(verse|synopsis)\]$/,/^$/ {
+                        /^$/d;
+                        /^\[(verse|synopsis)\]$/d;
+                        s/\{litdd\}/--/g;
+                        s/'\''(git[ a-z-]*)'\''/\1/g;
+
+                        p;
+                }' \
 		<"$b2t" >"$out" &&
 	echo "$out"
 }