diff --git a/lib/git.js b/lib/git.js
index 267ef1d7..c25f3f9a 100644
--- a/lib/git.js
+++ b/lib/git.js
@@ -1,6 +1,15 @@
+const os = require('os');
+const path = require('path');
+const fs = require('fs');
+const crypto = require('crypto');
 const execa = require('execa');
 const debug = require('debug')('semantic-release:git');
 
+function _generateUniqueFilename() {
+  // -> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23327010/how-to-generate-unique-id-with-node-js
+  return crypto.randomBytes(16).toString('hex');
+}
+
 /**
  * Retrieve the list of files modified on the local repository.
  *
@@ -35,7 +44,14 @@ async function add(files, execaOptions) {
  * @throws {Error} if the commit failed.
  */
 async function commit(message, execaOptions) {
-  await execa('git', ['commit', '-m', message], execaOptions);
+  /* As messages can be arbitrarily long, we have to
+   write it to a tempfile to avoid ENAMETOOLONG on
+   poor systems not supporting "long" arguments */
+  const temporaryDir = os.tmpdir();
+  const temporaryMessageFileName = path.resolve(temporaryDir, _generateUniqueFilename());
+  fs.writeFileSync(temporaryMessageFileName, message);
+  await execa('git', ['commit', '-F', temporaryMessageFileName], execaOptions);
+  fs.unlinkSync(temporaryMessageFileName);
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/test/git.test.js b/test/git.test.js
index ada4e6d8..1aec411e 100644
--- a/test/git.test.js
+++ b/test/git.test.js
@@ -47,14 +47,18 @@ test('Returns [] if there is no modified files', async t => {
   await t.deepEqual(await getModifiedFiles({cwd}), []);
 });
 
-test('Commit added files', async t => {
+test('Commit added files with a huge message', async t => {
   // Create a git repository, set the current working directory at the root of the repo
   const {cwd} = await gitRepo();
   // Create files
   await outputFile(path.resolve(cwd, 'file1.js'), '');
   // Add files and commit
   await add(['.'], {cwd});
-  await commit('Test commit', {cwd});
+  // 1 MB message should break everything, ...
+  const hugeMessage = Array.from({length: 1024 * 1024})
+    .map((_, index) => (index % 72 ? 'z' : '\n'))
+    .join('');
+  await commit(hugeMessage, {cwd});
 
   await t.true((await gitGetCommits(undefined, {cwd})).length === 1);
 });