diff --git a/inc/admin_acl.php b/inc/admin_acl.php
index 15332b3b4..7027fe8dc 100644
--- a/inc/admin_acl.php
+++ b/inc/admin_acl.php
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ function admin_acl_handler(){
   }
 
   // reload ACL config
-  $AUTH_ACL = file(DOKU_INC.'conf/acl.auth.php');
+  $AUTH_ACL = file(DOKU_CONF.'acl.auth.php');
 }
 
 /**
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ function get_acl_config($id){
  * @author  Frank Schubert <frank@schokilade.de>
  */
 function admin_acl_add($acl_scope, $acl_user, $acl_level){
-  $acl_config = join("",file(DOKU_INC.'conf/acl.auth.php'));
+  $acl_config = join("",file(DOKU_CONF.'acl.auth.php'));
   
   // max level for pagenames is edit
   if(strpos($acl_scope,'*') === false) {
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ function admin_acl_add($acl_scope, $acl_user, $acl_level){
   
   $new_config = $acl_config.$new_acl;
   
-  return io_saveFile(DOKU_INC.'conf/acl.auth.php', $new_config);
+  return io_saveFile(DOKU_CONF.'acl.auth.php', $new_config);
 }
 
 /**
@@ -137,14 +137,14 @@ function admin_acl_add($acl_scope, $acl_user, $acl_level){
  * @author  Frank Schubert <frank@schokilade.de>
  */
 function admin_acl_del($acl_scope, $acl_user){
-  $acl_config = file(DOKU_INC.'conf/acl.auth.php');
+  $acl_config = file(DOKU_CONF.'acl.auth.php');
 
   $acl_pattern = '^'.preg_quote($acl_scope,'/').'\s+'.$acl_user.'\s+[0-8].*$';
   
   // save all non!-matching #FIXME invert is available from 4.2.0 only!
   $new_config = preg_grep("/$acl_pattern/", $acl_config, PREG_GREP_INVERT);
   
-  return io_saveFile(DOKU_INC.'conf/acl.auth.php', join('',$new_config));
+  return io_saveFile(DOKU_CONF.'acl.auth.php', join('',$new_config));
 }
 
 // --- HTML OUTPUT FUNCTIONS BELOW --- //
diff --git a/inc/auth.php b/inc/auth.php
index 020520004..463d947a2 100644
--- a/inc/auth.php
+++ b/inc/auth.php
@@ -31,8 +31,8 @@
   if($conf['useacl']){
     auth_login($_REQUEST['u'],$_REQUEST['p'],$_REQUEST['r']);
     //load ACL into a global array
-    if(is_readable(DOKU_INC.'conf/acl.auth.php')){
-      $AUTH_ACL = file(DOKU_INC.'conf/acl.auth.php');
+    if(is_readable(DOKU_CONF.'acl.auth.php')){
+      $AUTH_ACL = file(DOKU_CONF.'acl.auth.php');
     }else{
       $AUTH_ACL = array();
     }
diff --git a/inc/auth/plain.php b/inc/auth/plain.php
index 039fb422d..6178f1260 100644
--- a/inc/auth/plain.php
+++ b/inc/auth/plain.php
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ function auth_createUser($user,$pass,$name,$mail){
                              $mail,
                              $conf['defaultgroup']));
   $userline .= "\n";
-  $fh = fopen(DOKU_INC.'conf/users.auth.php','a');
+  $fh = fopen(DOKU_CONF.'users.auth.php','a');
   if($fh){
     fwrite($fh,$userline);
     fclose($fh);
@@ -93,10 +93,10 @@ function auth_createUser($user,$pass,$name,$mail){
  */
 function auth_plain_loadUserData(){
   $data = array();
-  if(!@file_exists(DOKU_INC.'conf/users.auth.php')){
+  if(!@file_exists(DOKU_CONF.'users.auth.php')){
     return $data;
   }
-  $lines = file(DOKU_INC.'conf/users.auth.php');
+  $lines = file(DOKU_CONF.'users.auth.php');
   foreach($lines as $line){
     $line = preg_replace('/#.*$/','',$line); //ignore comments
     $line = trim($line);
diff --git a/inc/common.php b/inc/common.php
index eadef5767..ad4de9ffd 100644
--- a/inc/common.php
+++ b/inc/common.php
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
  */
 
   if(!defined('DOKU_INC')) define('DOKU_INC',realpath(dirname(__FILE__).'/../').'/');
-  require_once(DOKU_INC.'conf/dokuwiki.php');
+  require_once(DOKU_CONF.'dokuwiki.php');
   require_once(DOKU_INC.'inc/io.php');
   require_once(DOKU_INC.'inc/utf8.php');
   require_once(DOKU_INC.'inc/mail.php');
@@ -286,7 +286,7 @@ function checkwordblock(){
 
   if(!$conf['usewordblock']) return false;
 
-  $blockfile = file(DOKU_INC.'conf/wordblock.conf');
+  $blockfile = file(DOKU_CONF.'wordblock.conf');
   //how many lines to read at once (to work around some PCRE limits)
   if(version_compare(phpversion(),'4.3.0','<')){
     //old versions of PCRE define a maximum of parenthesises even if no
@@ -860,7 +860,7 @@ function check(){
     msg('Cachedir is not writable',-1);
   }
 
-  if(is_writable(DOKU_INC.'conf/users.auth.php')){
+  if(is_writable(DOKU_CONF.'users.auth.php')){
     msg('conf/users.auth.php is writable',1);
   }else{
     msg('conf/users.auth.php is not writable',0);
diff --git a/inc/confutils.php b/inc/confutils.php
index 2bcd90b6b..1415d48f6 100644
--- a/inc/confutils.php
+++ b/inc/confutils.php
@@ -36,9 +36,9 @@ function mimetype($file){
 function getMimeTypes() {
   static $mime = NULL;
   if ( !$mime ) {
-    $mime = confToHash(DOKU_INC . 'conf/mime.conf');
-    if (@file_exists(DOKU_INC . 'conf/mime.local.conf')) {
-      $local = confToHash(DOKU_INC . 'conf/mime.local.conf');
+    $mime = confToHash(DOKU_CONF.'mime.conf');
+    if (@file_exists(DOKU_CONF.'mime.local.conf')) {
+      $local = confToHash(DOKU_CONF.'mime.local.conf');
       $mime = array_merge($mime, $local);
     }
   }
@@ -53,9 +53,9 @@ function getMimeTypes() {
 function getAcronyms() {
   static $acronyms = NULL;
   if ( !$acronyms ) {
-    $acronyms = confToHash(DOKU_INC . 'conf/acronyms.conf');
-    if (@file_exists(DOKU_INC . 'conf/acronyms.local.conf')) {
-      $local = confToHash(DOKU_INC . 'conf/acronyms.local.conf');
+    $acronyms = confToHash(DOKU_CONF.'acronyms.conf');
+    if (@file_exists(DOKU_CONF.'acronyms.local.conf')) {
+      $local = confToHash(DOKU_CONF.'acronyms.local.conf');
       $acronyms = array_merge($acronyms, $local);
     }
   }
@@ -70,9 +70,9 @@ function getAcronyms() {
 function getSmileys() {
   static $smileys = NULL;
   if ( !$smileys ) {
-    $smileys = confToHash(DOKU_INC . 'conf/smileys.conf');
-    if (@file_exists(DOKU_INC . 'conf/smileys.local.conf')) {
-      $local = confToHash(DOKU_INC . 'conf/smileys.local.conf');
+    $smileys = confToHash(DOKU_CONF.'smileys.conf');
+    if (@file_exists(DOKU_CONF.'smileys.local.conf')) {
+      $local = confToHash(DOKU_CONF.'smileys.local.conf');
       $smileys = array_merge($smileys, $local);
     }
   }
@@ -87,9 +87,9 @@ function getSmileys() {
 function getEntities() {
   static $entities = NULL;
   if ( !$entities ) {
-    $entities = confToHash(DOKU_INC . 'conf/entities.conf');
-    if (@file_exists(DOKU_INC . 'conf/entities.local.conf')) {
-      $local = confToHash(DOKU_INC . 'conf/entities.local.conf');
+    $entities = confToHash(DOKU_CONF.'entities.conf');
+    if (@file_exists(DOKU_CONF.'entities.local.conf')) {
+      $local = confToHash(DOKU_CONF.'entities.local.conf');
       $entities = array_merge($entities, $local);
     }
   }
@@ -104,9 +104,9 @@ function getEntities() {
 function getInterwiki() {
   static $wikis = NULL;
   if ( !$wikis ) {
-    $wikis = confToHash(DOKU_INC . 'conf/interwiki.conf',true);
-    if (@file_exists(DOKU_INC . 'conf/interwiki.local.conf')) {
-      $local = confToHash(DOKU_INC . 'conf/interwiki.local.conf');
+    $wikis = confToHash(DOKU_CONF.'interwiki.conf',true);
+    if (@file_exists(DOKU_CONF.'interwiki.local.conf')) {
+      $local = confToHash(DOKU_CONF.'interwiki.local.conf');
       $wikis = array_merge($wikis, $local);
     }
   }
diff --git a/inc/init.php b/inc/init.php
index 370e308b7..4e59cdbe1 100644
--- a/inc/init.php
+++ b/inc/init.php
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@
   // define the include path
   if(!defined('DOKU_INC')) define('DOKU_INC',realpath(dirname(__FILE__).'/../').'/');
 
+  // define config path (packagers may want to change this to /etc/dokuwiki/)
+  if(!defined('DOKU_CONF')) define('DOKU_CONF',DOKU_INC.'/conf/');
+
   // set up error reporting to sane values
   error_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE);
 
@@ -14,8 +17,8 @@
   $conf = array();
 
   // load the config file(s)
-  require_once(DOKU_INC.'conf/dokuwiki.php');
-  @include_once(DOKU_INC.'conf/local.php');
+  require_once(DOKU_CONF.'dokuwiki.php');
+  @include_once(DOKU_CONF.'local.php');
 
   //prepare language array
   global $lang;
@@ -70,8 +73,8 @@
   init_paths();
 
   // automatic upgrade to script versions of certain files
-  scriptify(DOKU_INC.'conf/users.auth');
-  scriptify(DOKU_INC.'conf/acl.auth');
+  scriptify(DOKU_CONF.'users.auth');
+  scriptify(DOKU_CONF.'acl.auth');
 
 
 /**
diff --git a/inc/parserutils.php b/inc/parserutils.php
index 349e83725..1bf36c5fd 100644
--- a/inc/parserutils.php
+++ b/inc/parserutils.php
@@ -78,8 +78,8 @@ function p_cached_xhtml($file){
       && ((time() - $cachetime) < $conf['cachetime'])                 // and is cachefile young enough
       && !isset($_REQUEST['purge'])                                   // no purge param was set
       && ($cachetime > @filemtime($purge))                            // and newer than the purgefile
-      && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_INC.'conf/dokuwiki.php'))      // newer than the config file
-      && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_INC.'conf/local.php'))         // newer than the local config file
+      && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_CONF.'dokuwiki.php'))      // newer than the config file
+      && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_CONF.'local.php'))         // newer than the local config file
       && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_INC.'inc/parser/xhtml.php'))   // newer than the renderer
       && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_INC.'inc/parser/parser.php'))  // newer than the parser
       && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_INC.'inc/parser/handler.php')))// newer than the handler
@@ -128,8 +128,8 @@ function p_cached_instructions($file,$cacheonly=false){
   if( @file_exists($file)                                             // does the source exist
       && $cachetime > @filemtime($file)                               // cache is fresh
       && !isset($_REQUEST['purge'])                                   // no purge param was set
-      && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_INC.'conf/dokuwiki.php'))      // newer than the config file
-      && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_INC.'conf/local.php'))         // newer than the local config file
+      && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_CONF.'dokuwiki.php'))      // newer than the config file
+      && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_CONF.'local.php'))         // newer than the local config file
       && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_INC.'inc/parser/parser.php'))  // newer than the parser
       && ($cachetime > @filemtime(DOKU_INC.'inc/parser/handler.php')))// newer than the handler
   {
diff --git a/inc/template.php b/inc/template.php
index ac5ea3d67..2d465e3d3 100644
--- a/inc/template.php
+++ b/inc/template.php
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
  */
 
   if(!defined('DOKU_INC')) define('DOKU_INC',realpath(dirname(__FILE__).'/../').'/');
-  require_once(DOKU_INC.'conf/dokuwiki.php');
+  require_once(DOKU_CONF.'dokuwiki.php');
 
 /**
  * Wrapper around htmlspecialchars()