diff --git a/doc/2-admin.mkd b/doc/2-admin.mkd
index a93df4b..ad9f18e 100644
--- a/doc/2-admin.mkd
+++ b/doc/2-admin.mkd
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ In this document:
 
   * administer
       * adding users and repos
+      * moving pre-existing repos into gitolite
       * specifying gitweb and daemon access
       * custom hooks
       * custom git config
@@ -40,6 +41,25 @@ Please read on to see how to do this correctly.
 
   * when done, commit your changes and push
 
+#### moving pre-existing repos into gitolite
+
+One simple way to add a pre-existing repo to gitolite is to let gitolite
+create it as a brand new repo as in the previous section, and then, from an
+existing clone, "push --all" to the new one.
+
+However, if you have many existing repos to add, this can be time-consuming
+and error-prone.  Here's how to take a bunch of existing repos and add them to
+gitolite:
+
+  * make sure they're *bare* repos ;-)
+
+  * log on to the server and copy the repos to `$REPO_BASE` (which defaults to
+    `~/repositories`), making sure that the directory names end in ".git".
+
+  * back on your workstation, add each repo (without the `.git` suffix) to
+    `conf/gitolite.conf` in your gitolite-admin repo clone.  Then add, commit,
+    push.
+
 #### specifying gitweb and daemon access
 
 This is a feature that I personally do not use (corporate environments don't
diff --git a/hooks/common/gitolite-hooked b/hooks/common/gitolite-hooked
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/src/gl-compile-conf b/src/gl-compile-conf
index bd2780f..c9b953b 100755
--- a/src/gl-compile-conf
+++ b/src/gl-compile-conf
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ $Data::Dumper::Sortkeys = sub { return [ reverse sort keys %{$_[0]} ]; };
 open STDOUT, ">", "/dev/null" if (@ARGV and shift eq '-q');
 
 # these are set by the "rc" file
-our ($GL_ADMINDIR, $GL_CONF, $GL_KEYDIR, $GL_CONF_COMPILED, $REPO_BASE, $REPO_UMASK, $PROJECTS_LIST, $GIT_PATH, $SHELL_USERS, $GL_WILDREPOS, $GL_GITCONFIG_KEYS);
+our ($GL_ADMINDIR, $GL_CONF, $GL_KEYDIR, $GL_CONF_COMPILED, $REPO_BASE, $REPO_UMASK, $PROJECTS_LIST, $GIT_PATH, $SHELL_USERS, $GL_WILDREPOS, $GL_GITCONFIG_KEYS, $GL_PACKAGE_HOOKS);
 # and these are set by gitolite.pm
 our ($REPONAME_PATT, $REPOPATT_PATT, $USERNAME_PATT, $AUTH_COMMAND, $AUTH_OPTIONS, $ABRT, $WARN);
 
@@ -400,6 +400,17 @@ for my $repo (sort keys %repos) {
         # new_repo would have chdir'd us away; come back
         wrap_chdir("$repo_base_abs");
     }
+
+    # when repos are copied over from elsewhere, one had to run easy install
+    # once again to make the new (OS-copied) repo contain the proper update
+    # hook.  Perhaps we can make this easier now, and eliminate the easy
+    # install, with a quick check (and a new, empty, "hook" as a sentinel)
+    unless (-l "$repo.git/hooks/gitolite-hooked") {
+        ln_sf("$GL_ADMINDIR/hooks/common", "*", "$repo.git/hooks");
+        # in case of package install, GL_ADMINDIR is no longer the top cop;
+        # override with the package hooks
+        ln_sf("$GL_PACKAGE_HOOKS/common", "*", "$repo.git/hooks") if $GL_PACKAGE_HOOKS;
+    }
 }
 
 warn "\n\t\t***** WARNING *****\n" .