diff --git a/system/options.nix b/system/options.nix
index d421e8d767b..7496c910de5 100644
--- a/system/options.nix
+++ b/system/options.nix
@@ -736,6 +736,28 @@
     ";
   }
 
+  {
+    name = ["services" "httpd" "noUserDir"];
+    default = true;
+    description = "
+	Set to false to let users to publish ~/public_html as /~user.
+";
+  }
+
+  {
+    name = ["services" "httpd" "extraDirectories"];
+    default = "";
+    example = "
+	<Directory /home>
+		Options FollowSymlinks
+		AllowOverride All
+	</Directory>
+";
+    description = "
+	These lines go to httpd.conf verbatim. They will go after
+	directories and directory aliases defined by default.
+";
+  }
   
   {
     name = ["services" "httpd" "subservices" "subversion" "enable"];
diff --git a/upstart-jobs/httpd.nix b/upstart-jobs/httpd.nix
index 864b0ee9bdf..276df7971fd 100644
--- a/upstart-jobs/httpd.nix
+++ b/upstart-jobs/httpd.nix
@@ -20,12 +20,16 @@ let
   logDir = getCfg "logDir";
   stateDir = getCfg "stateDir";
   enableSSL = false;
+  noUserDir = getCfg "noUserDir";
+  extraDirectories = getCfg "extraDirectories";
   
   webServer = import ../services/apache-httpd {
-    inherit (pkgs) stdenv apacheHttpd coreutils;
+    inherit (pkgs) apacheHttpd coreutils;
+    stdenv = pkgs.stdenvNewSetupScript;
 
     inherit hostName httpPort httpsPort
-      user group adminAddr logDir stateDir;
+      user group adminAddr logDir stateDir
+      noUserDir extraDirectories;
     
     subServices =