diff --git a/conf/example.gitolite.rc b/conf/example.gitolite.rc
index 44413a0..72acc79 100644
--- a/conf/example.gitolite.rc
+++ b/conf/example.gitolite.rc
@@ -1,20 +1,38 @@
-# this is meant to be pulled into a perl program using "do"
+# default paths for gitolite
+
+# please read comments before editing
+
+# this file is meant to be pulled into a perl program using "do" or "require".
+
+# You do NOT need to know perl to edit the paths; it should be fairly
+# self-explanatory
+
+# --------------------------------------
+
+# this is where the repos go.  If you provide a relative path (not starting
+# with "/"), it's relative to your $HOME.  You may want to put in something
+# like "/bigdisk" or whatever if your $HOME is too small for the repos, for
+# example
 
-# base directory for all the repos (absolute, or relative to $HOME)
 $REPO_BASE="repositories";
 
+# --------------------------------------
+
+# I see no reason anyone may want to change the gitolite admin directory, but
+# feel free to do so
+
 # gitolite admin directory, files, etc
 $GL_ADMINDIR=$ENV{HOME} . "/.gitolite";
 
 # --------------------------------------
 
-# the ones below can be left as they are, unless for some reason you want them
-# elsewhere
+# I see even less reason to change these, since they're all relative to the
+# gitolite admin directory above, but hey it's *your* system...
 
 $GL_CONF="$GL_ADMINDIR/conf/gitolite.conf";
 $GL_KEYDIR="$GL_ADMINDIR/keydir";
 $GL_CONF_COMPILED="$GL_ADMINDIR/conf/gitolite.conf-compiled.pm";
 
 # --------------------------------------
-# this should be the last line in this file, per perl rules
+# per perl rules, this should be the last line in such a file:
 1;
diff --git a/src/install.pl b/src/install.pl
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..73fb118
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/install.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+
+our $REPO_BASE;
+our $GL_ADMINDIR;
+our $GL_CONF;
+
+# wrapper around mkdir; it's not an error if the directory exists, but it is
+# an error if it doesn't exist and we can't create it
+sub wrap_mkdir
+{
+    my $dir = shift;
+    -d $dir or mkdir($dir) or die "mkdir $dir failed: $!\n";
+}
+
+# the only path that is *fixed* (can't be changed without changing all 3
+# programs) is ~/.gitolite.rc
+
+my $glrc = $ENV{HOME} . "/.gitolite.rc";
+unless (-f $glrc) {
+    # doesn't exist.  Copy it across, tell user to edit it and come back
+    system("cp conf/example.gitolite.rc $glrc");
+    print STDERR "created $glrc\n";
+    print STDERR "please edit it, set the paths as you like, and rerun this script\n";
+    exit;
+}
+
+# ok now $glrc exists; read it to get the other paths
+unless (my $ret = do $glrc)
+{
+    die "parse $glrc failed: $@" if $@;
+    die "couldn't do $glrc: $!"  unless defined $ret;
+    die "couldn't run $glrc"     unless $ret;
+}
+
+# mkdir $REPO_BASE, $GL_ADMINDIR if they don't already exist
+wrap_mkdir( $REPO_BASE =~ m(^/) ? $REPO_BASE : "$ENV{HOME}/$REPO_BASE" );
+wrap_mkdir($GL_ADMINDIR);
+# mkdir $GL_ADMINDIR's subdirs
+for my $dir qw(conf doc keydir src) {
+    wrap_mkdir("$GL_ADMINDIR/$dir");
+}
+
+# "src" and "doc" will be overwritten on each install, but not conf
+system("cp -R src doc $GL_ADMINDIR");
+
+unless (-f $GL_CONF) {
+    system("cp conf/example.conf $GL_CONF");
+    print STDERR <<EOF;
+    created $GL_CONF
+    please edit it, then run these two commands:
+        cd $GL_ADMINDIR
+        src/gl-compile-conf
+    (the "admin" document should help here...)
+EOF
+}
diff --git a/src/install.sh b/src/install.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 5b9e537..0000000
--- a/src/install.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,25 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-
-# install gitolite
-
-# quick safety check: do not run if ~/.gitolite.rc is present
-
-[[ -f ~/.gitolite.rc ]] && {
-    echo sorry\; \'~/.gitolite.rc\' already exists
-    exit 1
-}
-
-# this one is fixed to the location shown
-cp conf/example.gitolite.rc ~/.gitolite.rc
-
-# the destinations below are defaults; if you change the paths in the "rc"
-# file above, these destinations also must change accordingly
-
-# mkdir $REPO_BASE, $GL_ADMINDIR, it's subdirs, and $GL_KEYDIR
-mkdir                       ~/repositories
-mkdir                       ~/.gitolite
-mkdir                       ~/.gitolite/{src,conf,doc,keydir}
-
-# copy conf, src, doc
-cp -R src doc conf          ~/.gitolite
-cp conf/example.conf        ~/.gitolite/conf/gitolite.conf