diff --git a/config.php.sample b/config.php.sample
index 2dbdbb673e..27511d129b 100644
--- a/config.php.sample
+++ b/config.php.sample
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ $config['site']['path'] = 'laconica';
 #$config['site']['broughtby'] = 'Individual or Company';
 #$config['site']['broughtbyurl'] = 'http://example.net/';
 
+# If you want logging sent to a file in addition to syslog
+#$config['site']['logfile'] = '/tmp/laconica.log';
+
 # This is a PEAR DB DSN, see http://pear.php.net/manual/en/package.database.db.intro-dsn.php
 # Set it to match your actual database
 
diff --git a/lib/util.php b/lib/util.php
index 512f2deceb..8b17d873b0 100644
--- a/lib/util.php
+++ b/lib/util.php
@@ -1065,6 +1065,14 @@ function common_ensure_syslog() {
 function common_log($priority, $msg, $filename=NULL) {
 	common_ensure_syslog();
 	syslog($priority, $msg);
+	global $config;
+	$log = fopen($config['site']['logfile'], "a");
+	if ($log) {
+		$syslog_priorities = array('LOG_EMERG', 'LOG_ALERT', 'LOG_CRIT', 'LOG_ERR', 'LOG_WARNING', 'LOG_NOTICE', 'LOG_INFO', 'LOG_DEBUG');
+		$output = date('Y-m-d H:i:s') . ' ' . $syslog_priorities[$priority] . ': ' . $msg . "\n";
+    	fwrite($log, $output);
+		fclose($log);
+	}
 }
 
 function common_debug($msg, $filename=NULL) {