diff --git a/osc/commandline.py b/osc/commandline.py
index ecaaf8d4..082a3786 100755
--- a/osc/commandline.py
+++ b/osc/commandline.py
@@ -32,37 +32,28 @@ class Osc(cmdln.Cmdln):
         cmdln.Cmdln.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
         cmdln.Cmdln.do_help.aliases.append('h')
 
-        conf.get_config()
-
 
     def get_optparser(self):
         """this is the parser for "global" options (not specific to subcommand)"""
 
         optparser = cmdln.CmdlnOptionParser(self, version=get_osc_version())
         optparser.add_option('-H', '--http-debug', action='store_true',
-                      default=conf.config['http_debug'],
                       help='debug HTTP traffic')
         optparser.add_option('-A', '--apisrv', dest='apisrv',
                       metavar='URL',
                       help='specify URL to access API server at')
+        optparser.add_option('-c', '--config', dest='conffile',
+                      metavar='FILE',
+                      help='specify alternate configuration file')
         return optparser
 
 
     def postoptparse(self):
         """merge commandline options into the config"""
 
-        conf.config['http_debug'] = self.options.http_debug
-        if self.options.apisrv:
-            conf.config['scheme'], conf.config['apisrv'] = \
-                conf.parse_apisrv_url(conf.config['scheme'], self.options.apisrv)
-        conf.config['apiurl'] = conf.config['scheme'] + '://' + conf.config['apisrv']
-
-        # XXX unless config['user'] goes away (and is replaced with a handy function, or 
-        # config becomes an object, even better), set the global 'user' here as well:
-        conf.config['user'] = conf.config['auth_dict'][conf.config['apisrv']]['user']
-
-        # finally, initialize urllib2 for to use the credentials for Basic Authentication
-        conf.init_basicauth(conf.config)
+        conf.get_config(override_conffile = self.options.conffile,
+                        override_http_debug = self.options.http_debug,
+                        override_apisrv = self.options.apisrv)
 
 
     def do_init(self, subcmd, opts, project, package):
diff --git a/osc/conf.py b/osc/conf.py
index 34005c80..aef40c10 100644
--- a/osc/conf.py
+++ b/osc/conf.py
@@ -160,13 +160,15 @@ def init_basicauth(config):
         authhandler.add_password(None, host, auth['user'], auth['pass'])
 
 
-def get_config():
+def get_config(override_conffile = None, 
+               override_http_debug = None, 
+               override_apisrv = None):
     """do the actual work (see module documentation)"""
     import os
     import sys
     global config
 
-    conffile = os.environ.get('OSC_CONFIG', '~/.oscrc')
+    conffile = override_conffile or os.environ.get('OSC_CONFIG', '~/.oscrc')
     conffile = os.path.expanduser(conffile)
 
     if not os.path.exists(conffile):
@@ -249,3 +251,20 @@ def get_config():
     # add the auth data we collected to the config dict
     config['auth_dict'] = auth_dict
 
+    # override values which we were called with
+    if override_http_debug: 
+        config['http_debug'] = override_http_debug
+    if override_apisrv:
+        config['scheme'], config['apisrv'] = \
+            parse_apisrv_url(config['scheme'], override_apisrv)
+
+    # to make the mess complete, set up the more convenient api url which we'll rather use
+    config['apiurl'] = config['scheme'] + '://' + config['apisrv']
+
+    # XXX unless config['user'] goes away (and is replaced with a handy function, or 
+    # config becomes an object, even better), set the global 'user' here as well:
+    config['user'] = config['auth_dict'][config['apisrv']]['user']
+
+    # finally, initialize urllib2 for to use the credentials for Basic Authentication
+    init_basicauth(config)
+