diff --git a/src/gl-compile-conf b/src/gl-compile-conf
index 69b2ccb..6ca9b9b 100755
--- a/src/gl-compile-conf
+++ b/src/gl-compile-conf
@@ -107,8 +107,9 @@ my %rurp_seen = ();
 # catch usernames<->pubkeys mismatches; search for "lint" below
 my %user_list = ();
 
-# gitweb descriptions, plain text, keyed by repo
+# gitweb descriptions and owners; plain text, keyed by "$repo.git"
 my %desc = ();
+my %owner = ();
 
 # set the umask before creating any files
 umask($REPO_UMASK);
@@ -253,14 +254,18 @@ sub parse_conf_file
                 }
             }
         }
-        # very simple syntax for the gitweb description of repo
-        elsif (/^(\S+) = "(.*)"$/)
+        # very simple syntax for the gitweb description of repo; one of:
+        #       reponame = "some description string"
+        #       reponame "owner name" = "some description string"
+        elsif (/^(\S+)(?: "(.*?)")? = "(.*)"$/)
         {
-            my ($repo, $desc) = ($1, $2);
+            my ($repo, $owner, $desc) = ($1, $2, $3);
             die "$ABRT bad repo name $repo\n" unless $repo =~ $REPONAME_PATT;
             die "$WARN $fragment attempting to set description for $repo\n" if
                 $fragment ne 'master' and $fragment ne $repo and ($groups{"\@$fragment"}{$repo} || '') ne 'master';
-            $desc{$repo} = $desc;
+            $desc{"$repo.git"} = $desc;
+            $owner =~ s/ /+/g if $owner;    # gitweb/INSTALL wants more, but meh...!
+            $owner{"$repo.git"} = $owner || '';
         }
         else
         {
@@ -375,10 +380,10 @@ my %projlist = ();
 for my $repo (sort keys %repos) {
     my $desc_file = "$repo.git/description";
     # note: having a description also counts as enabling gitweb
-    if ($repos{$repo}{'R'}{'gitweb'} or $desc{$repo}) {
+    if ($repos{$repo}{'R'}{'gitweb'} or $desc{"$repo.git"}) {
         $projlist{"$repo.git"} = 1;
         # add the description file; no messages to user or error checking :)
-        $desc{$repo} and open(DESC, ">", $desc_file) and print DESC "$desc{$repo}\n" and close DESC;
+        $desc{"$repo.git"} and open(DESC, ">", $desc_file) and print DESC $desc{"$repo.git"} . "\n" and close DESC;
     } else {
         # delete the description file; no messages to user or error checking :)
         unlink $desc_file;
@@ -387,7 +392,9 @@ for my $repo (sort keys %repos) {
 
 # update the project list
 my $projlist_fh = wrap_open( ">", $PROJECTS_LIST);
-print $projlist_fh join("\n", sort keys %projlist), "\n" if %projlist;
+for my $proj (sort keys %projlist) {
+    print $projlist_fh "$proj" . ( $owner{$proj} ? " $owner{$proj}" : "" ) . "\n";
+}
 close $projlist_fh;
 
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------