diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 15864e23bd..fb2b28868a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -116,6 +116,13 @@ template_dir = $(prefix)/share/git-core/templates/
 GIT_PYTHON_DIR = $(prefix)/share/git-core/python
 # DESTDIR=
 
+# default configuration for gitweb
+GITWEB_SITENAME =
+GITWEB_PROJECTROOT = /pub/git
+GITWEB_LIST =
+GITWEB_HOMETEXT = indextext.html
+GITWEB_CSS = gitweb.css
+
 export prefix bindir gitexecdir template_dir GIT_PYTHON_DIR
 
 CC = gcc
@@ -514,7 +521,7 @@ LIB_OBJS += $(COMPAT_OBJS)
 export prefix TAR INSTALL DESTDIR SHELL_PATH template_dir
 ### Build rules
 
-all: $(ALL_PROGRAMS) $(BUILT_INS) git$X gitk
+all: $(ALL_PROGRAMS) $(BUILT_INS) git$X gitk gitweb/gitweb.cgi
 
 all:
 	$(MAKE) -C templates
@@ -572,6 +579,20 @@ git-status: git-commit
 	cp $< $@+
 	mv $@+ $@
 
+gitweb/gitweb.cgi: gitweb/gitweb.perl
+	rm -f $@ $@+
+	sed -e '1s|#!.*perl|#!$(PERL_PATH_SQ)|' \
+	    -e 's|@@GIT_VERSION@@|$(GIT_VERSION)|g' \
+	    -e 's|@@GIT_BINDIR@@|$(bindir)|g' \
+	    -e 's|@@GITWEB_SITENAME@@|$(GITWEB_SITENAME)|g' \
+	    -e 's|@@GITWEB_PROJECTROOT@@|$(GITWEB_PROJECTROOT)|g' \
+	    -e 's|@@GITWEB_LIST@@|$(GITWEB_LIST)|g' \
+	    -e 's|@@GITWEB_HOMETEXT@@|$(GITWEB_HOMETEXT)|g' \
+	    -e 's|@@GITWEB_CSS@@|$(GITWEB_CSS)|g' \
+	    $< >$@+
+	chmod +x $@+
+	mv $@+ $@
+
 git-instaweb: git-instaweb.sh gitweb/gitweb.cgi gitweb/gitweb.css
 	rm -f $@ $@+
 	sed -e '1s|#!.*/sh|#!$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)|' \
@@ -582,7 +603,7 @@ git-instaweb: git-instaweb.sh gitweb/gitweb.cgi gitweb/gitweb.css
 	    -e '/@@GITWEB_CGI@@/d' \
 	    -e '/@@GITWEB_CSS@@/r gitweb/gitweb.css' \
 	    -e '/@@GITWEB_CSS@@/d' \
-	    $@.sh | sed "s|/usr/bin/git|$(bindir)/git|" > $@+
+	    $@.sh > $@+
 	chmod +x $@+
 	mv $@+ $@
 
diff --git a/gitweb/README b/gitweb/README
index 8d672762ea..ed939e2fb5 100644
--- a/gitweb/README
+++ b/gitweb/README
@@ -5,5 +5,22 @@ The one working on:
 
 From the git version 1.4.0 gitweb is bundled with git.
 
+
+How to configure gitweb for your local system:
+
+You can specify the following configuration variables when building GIT:
+ * GITWEB_SITENAME
+   Shown in the title of all generated pages, defaults to the servers name.
+ * GITWEB_PROJECTROOT
+   The root directory for all projects shown by gitweb.
+ * GITWEB_LIST
+   points to a directory to scan for projects (defaults to project root)
+   or to a file for explicit listing of projects.
+ * GITWEB_HOMETEXT
+   points to an .html file which is included on the gitweb project
+   overview page.
+ * GITWEB_CSS
+   Points to the location where you put gitweb.css on your web server.
+
 Any comment/question/concern to:
   Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@vrfy.org>
diff --git a/gitweb/gitweb.cgi b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
similarity index 99%
rename from gitweb/gitweb.cgi
rename to gitweb/gitweb.perl
index 9448b72798..6e4261d5f2 100755
--- a/gitweb/gitweb.cgi
+++ b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
@@ -18,18 +18,18 @@ use File::Find qw();
 binmode STDOUT, ':utf8';
 
 our $cgi = new CGI;
-our $version = "267";
+our $version = "@@GIT_VERSION@@";
 our $my_url = $cgi->url();
 our $my_uri = $cgi->url(-absolute => 1);
 our $rss_link = "";
 
 # core git executable to use
 # this can just be "git" if your webserver has a sensible PATH
-our $GIT = "/usr/bin/git";
+our $GIT = "@@GIT_BINDIR@@/git";
 
 # absolute fs-path which will be prepended to the project path
 #our $projectroot = "/pub/scm";
-our $projectroot = "/home/kay/public_html/pub/scm";
+our $projectroot = "@@GITWEB_PROJECTROOT@@";
 
 # version of the core git binary
 our $git_version = qx($GIT --version) =~ m/git version (.*)$/ ? $1 : "unknown";
@@ -45,17 +45,16 @@ our $home_link = $my_uri;
 
 # name of your site or organization to appear in page titles
 # replace this with something more descriptive for clearer bookmarks
-our $site_name = $ENV{'SERVER_NAME'} || "Untitled";
+our $site_name = "@@GITWEB_SITENAME@@" || $ENV{'SERVER_NAME'} || "Untitled";
 
 # html text to include at home page
-our $home_text = "indextext.html";
+our $home_text = "@@GITWEB_HOMETEXT@@";
 
 # URI of default stylesheet
-our $stylesheet = "gitweb.css";
+our $stylesheet = "@@GITWEB_CSS@@";
 
 # source of projects list
-#our $projects_list = $projectroot;
-our $projects_list = "index/index.aux";
+our $projects_list = "@@GITWEB_LIST@@" || "$projectroot";
 
 # default blob_plain mimetype and default charset for text/plain blob
 our $default_blob_plain_mimetype = 'text/plain';