diff --git a/modules/services/web-servers/lighttpd/default.nix b/modules/services/web-servers/lighttpd/default.nix
index 1931fa65e51..326ed76bd40 100644
--- a/modules/services/web-servers/lighttpd/default.nix
+++ b/modules/services/web-servers/lighttpd/default.nix
@@ -7,9 +7,37 @@ with pkgs.lib;
 let
 
   cfg = config.services.lighttpd;
-  configFile = pkgs.writeText "lighttpd.conf" ''
-    ${cfg.configText}
-  '';
+
+  configFile = if cfg.configText != "" then
+    pkgs.writeText "lighttpd.conf" ''
+      ${cfg.configText}
+    ''
+    else
+    pkgs.writeText "lighttpd.conf" ''
+      server.document-root = "${cfg.document-root}"
+      server.port = ${toString cfg.port}
+      server.username = "lighttpd"
+      server.groupname = "lighttpd"
+
+      # Logging (logs end up in systemd journal)
+      server.modules += ("mod_accesslog")
+      accesslog.use-syslog = "enable"
+      server.errorlog-use-syslog = "enable"
+
+      mimetype.assign = (
+          ".html" => "text/html",
+          ".htm" => "text/html",
+          ".txt" => "text/plain",
+          ".jpg" => "image/jpeg",
+          ".png" => "image/png",
+          ".css" => "text/css"
+          )
+
+      static-file.exclude-extensions = ( ".fcgi", ".php", ".rb", "~", ".inc" )
+      index-file.names = ( "index.html" )
+
+      ${cfg.extraConfig}
+    '';
 
 in
 
@@ -23,37 +51,43 @@ in
         default = false;
         type = types.uniq types.bool;
         description = ''
-          Enable the lighttpd web server. You must configure it with
-          services.lighttpd.configText.
+          Enable the lighttpd web server.
+        '';
+      };
+
+      port = mkOption {
+        default = 80;
+        type = types.uniq types.int;
+        description = ''
+          TCP port number for lighttpd to bind to.
+        '';
+      };
+
+      document-root = mkOption {
+        default = "/srv/www";
+        type = types.uniq types.string;
+        description = ''
+          Document-root of the web server. Must be readable by the "lighttpd" user.
         '';
       };
 
       configText = mkOption {
         default = "";
         type = types.string;
-        example = ''
-          server.document-root = "/srv/www/"
-          server.port = 80
-          server.username = "lighttpd"
-          server.groupname = "lighttpd"
-
-          mimetype.assign = (
-            ".html" => "text/html", 
-            ".txt" => "text/plain",
-            ".jpg" => "image/jpeg",
-            ".png" => "image/png" 
-          )
-          
-          static-file.exclude-extensions = ( ".fcgi", ".php", ".rb", "~", ".inc" )
-          index-file.names = ( "index.html" )
-        '';
+	example = ''...verbatim config file contents...'';
         description = ''
-          Contents of lighttpd configuration file. The user and group
-          "lighttpd" is available for privilege separation. See configuration
-          tutorial at
-          http://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/wiki/TutorialConfiguration
-          or full documentation at
-          http://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/wiki/Docs
+          Overridable config file contents to use for lighttpd. By default, use
+          the contents automatically generated by NixOS.
+        '';
+      };
+
+      extraConfig = mkOption {
+        default = "";
+        type = types.string;
+        description = ''
+          These configuration lines will be appended to the generated lighttpd
+          config file. Note that this mechanism does not work when the manual
+          <option>configText</option> option is used.
         '';
       };