diff --git a/ci/lint/06_script.sh b/ci/lint/06_script.sh
index cafabaff73..c2d6146068 100755
--- a/ci/lint/06_script.sh
+++ b/ci/lint/06_script.sh
@@ -7,7 +7,11 @@
 export LC_ALL=C
 
 if [ "$TRAVIS_EVENT_TYPE" = "pull_request" ]; then
-  test/lint/commit-script-check.sh $TRAVIS_COMMIT_RANGE
+  # TRAVIS_BRANCH will be present in a Travis environment. For builds triggered
+  # by a pull request this is the name of the branch targeted by the pull request.
+  # https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/environment-variables/
+  COMMIT_RANGE="$TRAVIS_BRANCH..HEAD"
+  test/lint/commit-script-check.sh $COMMIT_RANGE
 fi
 
 # This only checks that the trees are pure subtrees, it is not doing a full
diff --git a/test/lint/lint-git-commit-check.sh b/test/lint/lint-git-commit-check.sh
index b0cdd82f60..5df1380cd1 100755
--- a/test/lint/lint-git-commit-check.sh
+++ b/test/lint/lint-git-commit-check.sh
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ if [ -z "${COMMIT_RANGE}" ]; then
     if [ -n "$1" ]; then
       COMMIT_RANGE="HEAD~$1...HEAD"
     else
+      # This assumes that the target branch of the pull request will be develop
       MERGE_BASE=$(git merge-base HEAD develop)
       COMMIT_RANGE="$MERGE_BASE..HEAD"
     fi
diff --git a/test/lint/lint-whitespace.sh b/test/lint/lint-whitespace.sh
index 8f9ecbf1d4..c9dd5594bf 100755
--- a/test/lint/lint-whitespace.sh
+++ b/test/lint/lint-whitespace.sh
@@ -26,7 +26,9 @@ if [ -z "${COMMIT_RANGE}" ]; then
   if [ -n "$1" ]; then
     COMMIT_RANGE="HEAD~$1...HEAD"
   else
-    COMMIT_RANGE="HEAD"
+    # This assumes that the target branch of the pull request will be develop.
+    MERGE_BASE=$(git merge-base HEAD develop)
+    COMMIT_RANGE="$MERGE_BASE..HEAD"
   fi
 fi