diff --git a/hooks/common/update b/hooks/common/update
index 3423522..44f494e 100755
--- a/hooks/common/update
+++ b/hooks/common/update
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ die "parse $ENV{GL_RC} failed: "       . ($! or $@) unless do $ENV{GL_RC};
     our $creater = $ENV{GL_CREATER};
     our $readers = $ENV{GL_READERS};
     our $writers = $ENV{GL_WRITERS};
+    our $gl_user = $ENV{GL_USER};
 
     die "parse $GL_CONF_COMPILED failed: " . ($! or $@) unless do $GL_CONF_COMPILED;
 
diff --git a/src/gitolite.pm b/src/gitolite.pm
index fbebeb3..65709fa 100644
--- a/src/gitolite.pm
+++ b/src/gitolite.pm
@@ -250,6 +250,7 @@ sub parse_acl
     our $creater = $ENV{GL_CREATER} = $c || $ENV{GL_CREATER} || "NOBODY";
     our $readers = $ENV{GL_READERS} = $r || $ENV{GL_READERS} || "NOBODY";
     our $writers = $ENV{GL_WRITERS} = $w || $ENV{GL_WRITERS} || "NOBODY";
+    our $gl_user = $ENV{GL_USER};
 
     die "parse $GL_CONF_COMPILED failed: " . ($! or $@) unless do $GL_CONF_COMPILED;
 
diff --git a/src/gl-compile-conf b/src/gl-compile-conf
index c9b953b..1693dcc 100755
--- a/src/gl-compile-conf
+++ b/src/gl-compile-conf
@@ -217,6 +217,7 @@ sub parse_conf_file
             # fully qualify refs that dont start with "refs/" or "NAME/";
             # prefix them with "refs/heads/"
             @refs = map { m(^(refs|NAME)/) or s(^)(refs/heads/); $_ } @refs;
+            @refs = map { s(/USER/)(/\$gl_user/); $_ } @refs;
 
             # expand the user list, unless it is just "@all"
             @users = expand_list ( @users )
@@ -367,7 +368,7 @@ my $dumped_data = Data::Dumper->Dump([\%repos], [qw(*repos)]);
 # the dump uses single quotes, but we convert any strings containing $creater,
 # $readers, $writers, to double quoted strings.  A wee bit sneaky, but not too
 # much...
-$dumped_data =~ s/'(?=[^']*\$(?:creater|readers|writers))(.*?)'/"$1"/g;
+$dumped_data =~ s/'(?=[^']*\$(?:creater|readers|writers|gl_user))(.*?)'/"$1"/g;
 print $compiled_fh $dumped_data;
 close $compiled_fh or die "$ABRT close compiled-conf failed: $!\n";