diff --git a/gitweb/gitweb.perl b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
index 2fd438905c..cde39131fb 100755
--- a/gitweb/gitweb.perl
+++ b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
@@ -313,6 +313,10 @@ our %feature = (
 	# Enable text search, which will list the commits which match author,
 	# committer or commit text to a given string.  Enabled by default.
 	# Project specific override is not supported.
+	#
+	# Note that this controls all search features, which means that if
+	# it is disabled, then 'grep' and 'pickaxe' search would also be
+	# disabled.
 	'search' => {
 		'override' => 0,
 		'default' => [1]},
@@ -6787,7 +6791,23 @@ sub git_history {
 }
 
 sub git_search {
-	gitweb_check_feature('search') or die_error(403, "Search is disabled");
+	$searchtype ||= 'commit';
+
+	# check if appropriate features are enabled
+	gitweb_check_feature('search')
+		or die_error(403, "Search is disabled");
+	if ($searchtype eq 'pickaxe') {
+		# pickaxe may take all resources of your box and run for several minutes
+		# with every query - so decide by yourself how public you make this feature
+		gitweb_check_feature('pickaxe')
+			or die_error(403, "Pickaxe search is disabled");
+	}
+	if ($searchtype eq 'grep') {
+		# grep search might be potentially CPU-intensive, too
+		gitweb_check_feature('grep')
+			or die_error(403, "Grep search is disabled");
+	}
+
 	if (!defined $searchtext) {
 		die_error(400, "Text field is empty");
 	}
@@ -6802,18 +6822,6 @@ sub git_search {
 		$page = 0;
 	}
 
-	$searchtype ||= 'commit';
-	if ($searchtype eq 'pickaxe') {
-		# pickaxe may take all resources of your box and run for several minutes
-		# with every query - so decide by yourself how public you make this feature
-		gitweb_check_feature('pickaxe')
-		    or die_error(403, "Pickaxe is disabled");
-	}
-	if ($searchtype eq 'grep') {
-		gitweb_check_feature('grep')
-		    or die_error(403, "Grep is disabled");
-	}
-
 	git_header_html();
 
 	if ($searchtype eq 'commit' or $searchtype eq 'author' or $searchtype eq 'committer') {