diff --git a/hgext/purge.py b/hgext/purge.py
--- a/hgext/purge.py
+++ b/hgext/purge.py
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@ from mercurial import hg, util
 from mercurial.i18n import _
 import os
 
-def dopurge(ui, repo, dirs=None, act=True, abort_on_err=False, eol='\n',
+def dopurge(ui, repo, dirs=None, act=True, ignored=False, 
+            abort_on_err=False, eol='\n',
             force=False, include=None, exclude=None):
     def error(msg):
         if abort_on_err:
@@ -54,7 +55,7 @@ def dopurge(ui, repo, dirs=None, act=Tru
     roots, match, anypats = util.cmdmatcher(repo.root, repo.getcwd(), dirs,
                                             include, exclude)
     for src, f, st in repo.dirstate.statwalk(files=roots, match=match,
-                                             ignored=True, directories=True):
+                                             ignored=ignored, directories=True):
         if src == 'd':
             directories.append(f)
         elif src == 'm':
@@ -139,6 +140,7 @@ def purge(ui, repo, *dirs, **opts):
     files that this program would delete use the --print option.
     '''
     act = not opts['print']
+    ignored = bool(opts['all'])
     abort_on_err = bool(opts['abort_on_err'])
     eol = opts['print0'] and '\0' or '\n'
     if eol == '\0':
@@ -147,13 +149,15 @@ def purge(ui, repo, *dirs, **opts):
     force = bool(opts['force'])
     include = opts['include']
     exclude = opts['exclude']
-    dopurge(ui, repo, dirs, act, abort_on_err, eol, force, include, exclude)
+    dopurge(ui, repo, dirs, act, ignored, abort_on_err,
+            eol, force, include, exclude)
 
 
 cmdtable = {
     'purge':
         (purge,
          [('a', 'abort-on-err', None, _('abort if an error occurs')),
+          ('',  'all', None, _('purge ignored files too')),
           ('f', 'force', None, _('purge even when missing files are detected')),
           ('p', 'print', None, _('print the file names instead of deleting them')),
           ('0', 'print0', None, _('end filenames with NUL, for use with xargs'
diff --git a/tests/test-purge b/tests/test-purge
--- a/tests/test-purge
+++ b/tests/test-purge
@@ -69,11 +69,14 @@ ls
 ls directory/untracked_file
 rm directory/untracked_file
 
-echo % delete ignored files
+echo % skip ignored files if --all not specified
 touch ignored
 hg purge -p
 hg purge -v
 ls
+hg purge -p --all
+hg purge -v --all
+ls
 
 echo % abort with missing files until we support name mangling filesystems
 touch untracked_file
diff --git a/tests/test-purge.out b/tests/test-purge.out
--- a/tests/test-purge.out
+++ b/tests/test-purge.out
@@ -42,7 +42,10 @@ Removing directory untracked_directory
 directory
 r1
 directory/untracked_file
-% delete ignored files
+% skip ignored files if --all not specified
+directory
+ignored
+r1
 ignored
 Removing file ignored
 directory