diff --git a/processor b/processor
index 74bba7f..2f1b6b7 100755
--- a/processor
+++ b/processor
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@ path_out="${2?Missing output path}"
 # provide default message formatter if necessary
 msgfmt="${msgfmt:-./msgfmt}"
 
+# default template path (the former is exported so that templates themselves may
+# make use of default templates)
+export path_default_tpl=./tpl
+path_tpl="${path_tpl:-$path_default_tpl}"
 
 # output XHTML5 header
 cat <<EOH
@@ -94,7 +98,7 @@ while read hash commit ts id subject; do
       export path_root='../../'
 
       # invoke template
-      "$repotype"/commit2html "$commit" | ./tpl/commit.sh
+      "$repotype"/commit2html "$commit" | "$path_tpl/commit"
     ) > "$path_out/$pagefile" \
     && ./hashcache "$hash" "$pagefile"
 done
diff --git a/repo2html b/repo2html
index 16ec4f3..2c79d87 100755
--- a/repo2html
+++ b/repo2html
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ cwarn()
 # configuration (note that this setup in conjunction with the below defaults
 # imply that they can be passed in as environment variables as an alternative to
 # options)
-while getopts t:d:c:l:f:R: opt; do
+while getopts t:d:c:l:f:R:T: opt; do
   case "$opt" in
     t) title="$OPTARG";;
     d) desc="$OPTARG";;
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ while getopts t:d:c:l:f:R: opt; do
     l) license="$OPTARG";;
     f) msgfmt="$OPTARG";;
     R) rss_count="$OPTARG";;
+    T) path_tpl="$OPTARG";;
     ?) exit 64;;
   esac
 done
@@ -96,7 +97,7 @@ license="${license:-$( cwarn license )}"
 msgfmt="${msgfmt:-./msgfmt}"
 
 # make configuration available to all scripts
-export title desc copyright license msgfmt url_root
+export title desc copyright license msgfmt url_root path_tpl
 
 # clear the cachefile (TODO: we could maintain cache files from previous runs if
 # we offer a flag that opts out of reprocessing previously processed commits)
diff --git a/tpl/commit.sh b/tpl/commit
similarity index 100%
rename from tpl/commit.sh
rename to tpl/commit