diff --git a/conf/example.gitolite.rc b/conf/example.gitolite.rc
index 2dee034..550d6f3 100644
--- a/conf/example.gitolite.rc
+++ b/conf/example.gitolite.rc
@@ -150,6 +150,20 @@ $RSYNC_BASE = "";
 # $RSYNC_BASE = "/home/git/up-down";
 # $RSYNC_BASE = "/tmp/up-down";
 
+# --------------------------------------
+# EXTERNAL COMMAND HELPER -- SVNSERVE
+
+# security note: runs an external command (svnserve) with specific arguments,
+# as specified below. %u is substituted with the username.
+
+# This setting allows launching svnserve when requested by the ssh client.
+# This allows using the same SSH setup (hostname/username/public key) for both
+# SVN and git access. Leave it undefined or set to the empty string to disable
+# svnserve access.
+
+$SVNSERVE = "";
+# $SVNSERVE = "/usr/bin/svnserve -r /var/svn/ -t --tunnel-user=%u";
+
 # --------------------------------------
 # ALLOW REPO CONFIG TO USE WILDCARDS
 
diff --git a/doc/3-faq-tips-etc.mkd b/doc/3-faq-tips-etc.mkd
index bb9c9d6..ffb5f43 100644
--- a/doc/3-faq-tips-etc.mkd
+++ b/doc/3-faq-tips-etc.mkd
@@ -650,14 +650,34 @@ powerful feature.  See `doc/admin-defined-commands.mkd`.
 Gitolite now has a mechanism for allowing access control for arbitrary
 external commands, as long as they are invoked via ssh and present a
 server-side command that contains enough information to make an access control
-decision.  The first (and only, so far) such command implemented is rsync.
+decision.
 
 Note that this is incompatible with giving people shell access as described in
 `doc/6-ssh-troubleshooting.mkd` -- people who have shell access are not
 subject to this mechanism (it wouldn't make sense to try and control someone
 who has shell access anyway).
 
-Please see the config files (both of them) for examples and usage.
+In general, external commands require changes in one or both the config files;
+the sample files in `conf/` double as documentation, so you should look there
+for examples and usage.
+
+Commands implemented so far are:
+
+  * rsync
+  * svnserve (see next section for a brief description; this has been
+    contributed by Simon and Vladimir)
+
+<a name="svnserve"></a>
+
+##### svnserve
+
+If you are transitioning from SVN to gitolite, and have a lot of users using
+public-key authentication with SVN, this feature may be useful to you. Once
+you migrate all users' public keys into gitolite, you can set the `$SVNSERVE`
+variable in `~/.gitolite.rc` to tie `svnserve` with gitolite's authentication
+system. Assuming you installed gitolite to the same user as the one you used
+for SVN, SVN connectivity will be retained, and users will be able to use
+both SVN and git using the same SSH configuration.
 
 ## design choices
 
diff --git a/src/gitolite.pm b/src/gitolite.pm
index 998c894..0d64f17 100644
--- a/src/gitolite.pm
+++ b/src/gitolite.pm
@@ -411,7 +411,7 @@ sub cli_repo_rights {
 
 sub special_cmd
 {
-    my ($GL_ADMINDIR, $GL_CONF_COMPILED, $shell_allowed, $RSYNC_BASE, $HTPASSWD_FILE) = @_;
+    my ($GL_ADMINDIR, $GL_CONF_COMPILED, $shell_allowed, $RSYNC_BASE, $HTPASSWD_FILE, $SVNSERVE) = @_;
 
     my $cmd = $ENV{SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND};
     my $user = $ENV{GL_USER};
@@ -432,6 +432,8 @@ sub special_cmd
         &ext_cmd_htpasswd($HTPASSWD_FILE);
     } elsif ($RSYNC_BASE and $cmd =~ /^rsync /) {
         &ext_cmd_rsync($GL_CONF_COMPILED, $RSYNC_BASE, $cmd);
+    } elsif ($SVNSERVE and $cmd eq 'svnserve -t') {
+        &ext_cmd_svnserve($SVNSERVE);
     } else {
         # if the user is allowed a shell, just run the command
         &log_it("$ENV{GL_TS}\t$ENV{SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND}\t$ENV{GL_USER}\n");
@@ -528,4 +530,17 @@ EOFhtp
     die "htpasswd command seems to have failed with $rc return code...\n" if $rc;
 }
 
+# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+#       external command helper: svnserve
+# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+sub ext_cmd_svnserve
+{
+    my $SVNSERVE = shift;
+
+    $SVNSERVE =~ s/%u/$ENV{GL_USER}/g;
+    exec $SVNSERVE;
+    die "svnserve exec failed\n";
+}
+
 1;
diff --git a/src/gl-auth-command b/src/gl-auth-command
index a2f827b..b888af0 100755
--- a/src/gl-auth-command
+++ b/src/gl-auth-command
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ use warnings;
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 # these are set by the "rc" file
-our ($GL_LOGT, $GL_CONF_COMPILED, $REPO_BASE, $GIT_PATH, $REPO_UMASK, $GL_ADMINDIR, $RSYNC_BASE, $HTPASSWD_FILE, $GL_WILDREPOS, $GL_ADC_PATH);
+our ($GL_LOGT, $GL_CONF_COMPILED, $REPO_BASE, $GIT_PATH, $REPO_UMASK, $GL_ADMINDIR, $RSYNC_BASE, $HTPASSWD_FILE, $GL_WILDREPOS, $GL_ADC_PATH, $SVNSERVE);
 # and these are set by gitolite.pm
 our ($R_COMMANDS, $W_COMMANDS, $REPONAME_PATT, $REPOPATT_PATT);
 our %repos;
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ if ($ENV{SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND} =~ $CUSTOM_COMMANDS) {
 my ($verb, $repo) = ($ENV{SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND} =~ /^\s*(git\s+\S+|\S+)\s+'\/?(.*?)(?:\.git)?'/);
 unless ( $verb and ( $verb eq 'git-init' or $verb =~ $R_COMMANDS or $verb =~ $W_COMMANDS ) and $repo and $repo =~ $REPONAME_PATT ) {
     # ok, it's not a normal git command; call the special command helper
-    &special_cmd ($GL_ADMINDIR, $GL_CONF_COMPILED, $shell_allowed, $RSYNC_BASE, $HTPASSWD_FILE);
+    &special_cmd ($GL_ADMINDIR, $GL_CONF_COMPILED, $shell_allowed, $RSYNC_BASE, $HTPASSWD_FILE, $SVNSERVE);
     exit;
 }
 die "$repo ends with a slash; I don't like that\n" if $repo =~ /\/$/;