diff --git a/gitweb/INSTALL b/gitweb/INSTALL
index 26967e201a..18c9ce35e8 100644
--- a/gitweb/INSTALL
+++ b/gitweb/INSTALL
@@ -166,6 +166,27 @@ Gitweb repositories
   shows repositories only if this file exists in its object database
   (if directory has the magic file named $export_ok).
 
+- Finally, it is possible to specify an arbitrary perl subroutine that
+  will be called for each project to determine if it can be exported.
+  The subroutine receives an absolute path to the project as its only
+  parameter.
+
+  For example, if you use mod_perl to run the script, and have dumb
+  http protocol authentication configured for your repositories, you
+  can use the following hook to allow access only if the user is
+  authorized to read the files:
+
+    $export_auth_hook = sub {
+        use Apache2::SubRequest ();
+        use Apache2::Const -compile => qw(HTTP_OK);
+        my $path = "$_[0]/HEAD";
+        my $r    = Apache2::RequestUtil->request;
+        my $sub  = $r->lookup_file($path);
+        return $sub->filename eq $path
+            && $sub->status == Apache2::Const::HTTP_OK;
+    };
+
+
 Generating projects list using gitweb
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/gitweb/gitweb.perl b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
index 68bdf62657..74672bffd8 100755
--- a/gitweb/gitweb.perl
+++ b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
@@ -95,6 +95,11 @@ our $default_projects_order = "project";
 # (only effective if this variable evaluates to true)
 our $export_ok = "++GITWEB_EXPORT_OK++";
 
+# show repository only if this subroutine returns true
+# when given the path to the project, for example:
+#    sub { return -e "$_[0]/git-daemon-export-ok"; }
+our $export_auth_hook = undef;
+
 # only allow viewing of repositories also shown on the overview page
 our $strict_export = "++GITWEB_STRICT_EXPORT++";
 
@@ -400,7 +405,8 @@ sub check_head_link {
 sub check_export_ok {
 	my ($dir) = @_;
 	return (check_head_link($dir) &&
-		(!$export_ok || -e "$dir/$export_ok"));
+		(!$export_ok || -e "$dir/$export_ok") &&
+		(!$export_auth_hook || $export_auth_hook->($dir)));
 }
 
 # process alternate names for backward compatibility