diff --git a/Documentation/config-gerrit.txt b/Documentation/config-gerrit.txt
index e49ff770b5..2a9c350562 100644
--- a/Documentation/config-gerrit.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config-gerrit.txt
@@ -1747,6 +1747,16 @@ a trusted username in the `TRUSTED_USER` HTTP Header:
 	filterClass = org.anyorg.MySecureFilter
 ----
 
+[[httpd.robotsFile]]httpd.robotsFile::
++
+Location of an external robots.txt file to be used instead of the one
+bundled with the .war of the application.
++
+If not absolute, the path is resolved relative to `$site_path`.
++
+If the file doesn't exist or can't be read the default robots.txt file
+bundled with the .war will be used instead.
+
 [[ldap]]Section ldap
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/gerrit-httpd/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/httpd/UrlModule.java b/gerrit-httpd/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/httpd/UrlModule.java
index 05b059b8cf..bf39bfb893 100644
--- a/gerrit-httpd/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/httpd/UrlModule.java
+++ b/gerrit-httpd/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/httpd/UrlModule.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import com.google.gerrit.common.PageLinks;
 import com.google.gerrit.httpd.raw.CatServlet;
 import com.google.gerrit.httpd.raw.HostPageServlet;
 import com.google.gerrit.httpd.raw.LegacyGerritServlet;
+import com.google.gerrit.httpd.raw.RobotsServlet;
 import com.google.gerrit.httpd.raw.SshInfoServlet;
 import com.google.gerrit.httpd.raw.StaticServlet;
 import com.google.gerrit.httpd.raw.ToolServlet;
@@ -112,6 +113,8 @@ class UrlModule extends ServletModule {
     if (cfg.deprecatedQuery) {
       serve("/query").with(DeprecatedChangeQueryServlet.class);
     }
+
+    serve("/robots.txt").with(RobotsServlet.class);
   }
 
   private Key<HttpServlet> notFound() {
diff --git a/gerrit-httpd/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/httpd/raw/RobotsServlet.java b/gerrit-httpd/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/httpd/raw/RobotsServlet.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d19a0ce867
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gerrit-httpd/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/httpd/raw/RobotsServlet.java
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+// Copyright (C) 2013 The Android Open Source Project
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+package com.google.gerrit.httpd.raw;
+
+import com.google.common.io.ByteStreams;
+import com.google.gerrit.server.config.GerritServerConfig;
+import com.google.gerrit.server.config.SitePaths;
+import com.google.inject.Inject;
+import com.google.inject.Singleton;
+
+import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.Config;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.OutputStream;
+
+import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
+import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
+import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
+
+/**
+ * This class provides a mechanism to use a configurable robots.txt file,
+ * outside of the .war of the application. In order to configure it add the
+ * following to the <code>httpd</code> section of the <code>gerrit.conf</code>
+ * file:
+ *
+ * <pre>
+ * [httpd]
+ *         robotsFile = etc/myrobots.txt
+ * </pre>
+ *
+ * If the specified file name is relative it will resolved as a sub directory of
+ * the site directory, if it is absolute it will be used as is.
+ *
+ * If the specified file doesn't exist or isn't readable the servlet will
+ * default to the <code>robots.txt</code> file bundled with the .war file of the
+ * application.
+ */
+@SuppressWarnings("serial")
+@Singleton
+public class RobotsServlet extends HttpServlet {
+  private static final Logger log =
+      LoggerFactory.getLogger(RobotsServlet.class);
+
+  private final File robotsFile;
+
+  @Inject
+  RobotsServlet(@GerritServerConfig final Config config, final SitePaths sitePaths) {
+    File file = sitePaths.resolve(
+      config.getString("httpd", null, "robotsFile"));
+    if (file != null && (!file.exists() || !file.canRead())) {
+      log.warn("Cannot read httpd.robotsFile, using default");
+      file = null;
+    }
+    robotsFile = file;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  protected void doGet(final HttpServletRequest req, final HttpServletResponse rsp)
+      throws IOException {
+    rsp.setContentType("text/plain");
+    InputStream in = openRobotsFile();
+    try {
+      OutputStream out = rsp.getOutputStream();
+      try {
+        ByteStreams.copy(in, out);
+      } finally {
+        out.close();
+      }
+    } finally {
+      in.close();
+    }
+  }
+
+  private InputStream openRobotsFile() {
+    if (robotsFile != null) {
+      try {
+        return new FileInputStream(robotsFile);
+      } catch (IOException e) {
+        log.warn("Cannot read " + robotsFile + "; using default", e);
+      }
+    }
+    return getServletContext().getResourceAsStream("/robots.txt");
+  }
+}