diff --git a/debian/hudson.default b/debian/hudson.default
index b6d108d19d1b62ca49c31c4621f3364df0195a4a..1758ee231946b8ac503eeb2048b06c022a956059 100644
--- a/debian/hudson.default
+++ b/debian/hudson.default
@@ -20,6 +20,11 @@ HUDSON_WAR=/usr/share/hudson/hudson.war
 # hudson home location
 HUDSON_HOME=/var/lib/hudson
 
+# set this to false if you don't want Hudson to run by itself
+# in this set up, you are expected to provide a servlet containr
+# to host hudson.
+RUN_STANDALONE=true
+
 # log location.  this may be a syslog facility.priority
 HUDSON_LOG=/var/log/hudson/$NAME.log
 #HUDSON_LOG=daemon.info
diff --git a/debian/hudson.init b/debian/hudson.init
index ca0631bd3d278989fb740f04530c5ab422f55bea..acdf0be184aca716a9cf2be9da1330c52dfa7703 100644
--- a/debian/hudson.init
+++ b/debian/hudson.init
@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@ DAEMON_ARGS="--name=$NAME --inherit --env=HUDSON_HOME=$HUDSON_HOME --output=$HUD
 # Exit if the package is not installed
 [ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
 
+# Exit if not supposed to run standalone
+[ "$RUN_STANDALONE" = "false" ] && exit 0
+
 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
 . /lib/init/vars.sh