diff --git a/mercurial/configitems.py b/mercurial/configitems.py
--- a/mercurial/configitems.py
+++ b/mercurial/configitems.py
@@ -585,6 +585,9 @@ coreconfigitem('verify', 'skipflags',
 coreconfigitem('web', 'accesslog',
     default='-',
 )
+coreconfigitem('web', 'address',
+    default='',
+)
 coreconfigitem('worker', 'backgroundclose',
     default=dynamicdefault,
 )
diff --git a/mercurial/hgweb/server.py b/mercurial/hgweb/server.py
--- a/mercurial/hgweb/server.py
+++ b/mercurial/hgweb/server.py
@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@ def create_server(ui, app):
         mimetypes.init()
         sys.setdefaultencoding(oldenc)
 
-    address = ui.config('web', 'address', '')
+    address = ui.config('web', 'address')
     port = util.getport(ui.config('web', 'port', 8000))
     try:
         return cls(ui, app, (address, port), handler)