diff --git a/mercurial/configitems.py b/mercurial/configitems.py
--- a/mercurial/configitems.py
+++ b/mercurial/configitems.py
@@ -718,6 +718,9 @@ coreconfigitem('web', 'allowbz2',
 coreconfigitem('web', 'allowgz',
     default=None,
 )
+coreconfigitem('web', 'allowpull',
+    default=True,
+)
 coreconfigitem('web', 'accesslog',
     default='-',
 )
diff --git a/mercurial/hgweb/hgweb_mod.py b/mercurial/hgweb/hgweb_mod.py
--- a/mercurial/hgweb/hgweb_mod.py
+++ b/mercurial/hgweb/hgweb_mod.py
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ class requestcontext(object):
         self.stripecount = self.configint('web', 'stripes')
         self.maxshortchanges = self.configint('web', 'maxshortchanges')
         self.maxfiles = self.configint('web', 'maxfiles')
-        self.allowpull = self.configbool('web', 'allowpull', True)
+        self.allowpull = self.configbool('web', 'allowpull')
 
         # we use untrusted=False to prevent a repo owner from using
         # web.templates in .hg/hgrc to get access to any file readable