diff --git a/lib/common.php b/lib/common.php
index 15ba1ed2a7..9d321f27d4 100644
--- a/lib/common.php
+++ b/lib/common.php
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ $config =
 			  'server' => 'localhost',
 			  'theme' => 'default',
 			  'path' => '/',
+			  'logfile' => NULL,
 			  'fancy' => false,
 			  'email' => $_SERVER['SERVER_ADMIN'],
 			  'broughtby' => NULL,
diff --git a/lib/util.php b/lib/util.php
index 8b17d873b0..432528074b 100644
--- a/lib/util.php
+++ b/lib/util.php
@@ -1063,15 +1063,19 @@ 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);
+	$logfile = common_config('site', 'logfile');
+	if ($logfile) {
+		$log = fopen($logfile, "a");
+		if ($log) {
+			static $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);
+		}
+	} else {
+		common_ensure_syslog();
+		syslog($priority, $msg);
 	}
 }