diff --git a/contrib/hgwebdir.fcgi b/contrib/hgwebdir.fcgi
--- a/contrib/hgwebdir.fcgi
+++ b/contrib/hgwebdir.fcgi
@@ -29,12 +29,28 @@ from flup.server.fcgi import WSGIServer
 # repos, collections of repos in a directory tree, or both.
 #
 # [paths]
-# virtual/path = /real/path
-# virtual/path = /real/path
+# virtual/path1 = /real/path1
+# virtual/path2 = /real/path2
+# virtual/root = /real/root/*
+# / = /real/root2/*
 #
 # [collections]
 # /prefix/to/strip/off = /root/of/tree/full/of/repos
 #
+# paths example: 
+#
+# * First two lines mount one repository into one virtual path, like
+# '/real/path1' into 'virtual/path1'.
+#
+# * The third entry tells every mercurial repository found in
+# '/real/root', recursively, should be mounted in 'virtual/root'. This
+# format is preferred over the [collections] one, using absolute paths
+# as configuration keys is not supported on every platform (including
+# Windows).
+#
+# * The last entry is a special case mounting all repositories in
+# '/real/root2' in the root of the virtual directory.
+#
 # collections example: say directory tree /foo contains repos /foo/bar,
 # /foo/quux/baz.  Give this config section:
 #   [collections]
diff --git a/hgwebdir.cgi b/hgwebdir.cgi
--- a/hgwebdir.cgi
+++ b/hgwebdir.cgi
@@ -28,12 +28,28 @@ import mercurial.hgweb.wsgicgi as wsgicg
 # repos, collections of repos in a directory tree, or both.
 #
 # [paths]
-# virtual/path = /real/path
-# virtual/path = /real/path
+# virtual/path1 = /real/path1
+# virtual/path2 = /real/path2
+# virtual/root = /real/root/*
+# / = /real/root2/*
 #
 # [collections]
 # /prefix/to/strip/off = /root/of/tree/full/of/repos
 #
+# paths example: 
+#
+# * First two lines mount one repository into one virtual path, like
+# '/real/path1' into 'virtual/path1'.
+#
+# * The third entry tells every mercurial repository found in
+# '/real/root', recursively, should be mounted in 'virtual/root'. This
+# format is preferred over the [collections] one, using absolute paths
+# as configuration keys is not supported on every platform (including
+# Windows).
+#
+# * The last entry is a special case mounting all repositories in
+# /'real/root2' in the root of the virtual directory.
+#
 # collections example: say directory tree /foo contains repos /foo/bar,
 # /foo/quux/baz.  Give this config section:
 #   [collections]
diff --git a/mercurial/hgweb/hgwebdir_mod.py b/mercurial/hgweb/hgwebdir_mod.py
--- a/mercurial/hgweb/hgwebdir_mod.py
+++ b/mercurial/hgweb/hgwebdir_mod.py
@@ -51,7 +51,21 @@ class hgwebdir(object):
                 if cp.has_option('web', 'baseurl'):
                     self._baseurl = cp.get('web', 'baseurl')
             if cp.has_section('paths'):
-                self.repos.extend(cleannames(cp.items('paths')))
+                paths = cleannames(cp.items('paths'))
+                for prefix, root in paths:
+                    roothead, roottail = os.path.split(root)
+                    if roottail != '*':
+                        self.repos.append((prefix, root))
+                        continue
+                    # "foo = /bar/*" makes every subrepo of /bar/ to be
+                    # mounted as foo/subrepo
+                    roothead = os.path.normpath(roothead)
+                    for path in util.walkrepos(roothead, followsym=True):
+                        path = os.path.normpath(path)
+                        name = util.pconvert(path[len(roothead):]).strip('/')
+                        if prefix:
+                            name = prefix + '/' + name
+                        self.repos.append((name, path))
             if cp.has_section('collections'):
                 for prefix, root in cp.items('collections'):
                     for path in util.walkrepos(root, followsym=True):
diff --git a/tests/test-hgwebdir b/tests/test-hgwebdir
--- a/tests/test-hgwebdir
+++ b/tests/test-hgwebdir
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ cat > paths.conf <<EOF
 [paths]
 t/a/=$root/a
 b=$root/b
+coll=$root/*
 EOF
 
 hg serve -p $HGPORT1 -d --pid-file=hg.pid --webdir-conf paths.conf \
@@ -66,6 +67,9 @@ echo % should succeed, slashy names
 "$TESTDIR/get-with-headers.py" localhost:$HGPORT1 '/t/a/?style=atom' \
 	| sed "s/http:\/\/[^/]*\//http:\/\/127.0.0.1\//"
 "$TESTDIR/get-with-headers.py" localhost:$HGPORT1 '/t/a/file/tip/a?style=raw'
+# Test [paths] '*' extension
+"$TESTDIR/get-with-headers.py" localhost:$HGPORT1 '/coll/?style=raw'
+"$TESTDIR/get-with-headers.py" localhost:$HGPORT1 '/coll/a/file/tip/a?style=raw'
 
 cat > collections.conf <<EOF
 [collections]
diff --git a/tests/test-hgwebdir.out b/tests/test-hgwebdir.out
--- a/tests/test-hgwebdir.out
+++ b/tests/test-hgwebdir.out
@@ -30,6 +30,10 @@ 200 Script output follows
 
 
 /b/
+/coll/a/
+/coll/b/
+/coll/b/d/
+/coll/c/
 /t/a/
 
 200 Script output follows
@@ -103,6 +107,17 @@ 200 Script output follows
 200 Script output follows
 
 a
+200 Script output follows
+
+
+/coll/a/
+/coll/b/
+/coll/b/d/
+/coll/c/
+
+200 Script output follows
+
+a
 % should succeed
 200 Script output follows