diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 9a9650314..44ed292d5 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -109,6 +109,10 @@ AC_PROG_RANLIB
 dnl autoconf 2.59 appears not to support AC_PROG_SED
 AC_CHECK_PROG([SED],[sed],[sed],[/bin/false])
 
+dnl check for asciidoc and a2x
+AC_PATH_PROG([ASCIIDOC], [asciidoc], none)
+AC_PATH_PROG([A2X], [a2x], none)
+
 AC_PATH_PROG([SHA1SUM], [sha1sum], none)
 AC_PATH_PROG([OPENSSL], [openssl], none)
 
diff --git a/doc/Makefile.am b/doc/Makefile.am
index f8e17ecd3..2eae7a187 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile.am
+++ b/doc/Makefile.am
@@ -1,12 +1,36 @@
+asciidoc_files = tor-gencert
+
+html_in = $(asciidoc_files:=.html.in)
+
+man_in = $(asciidoc_files:=.1.in)
 
 EXTRA_DIST = HACKING                                         \
              tor-resolve.1 tor-gencert.1                     \
+             $(html_in) $(man_in) $(asciidoc_files:=.1.txt)  \
              tor-osx-dmg-creation.txt tor-rpm-creation.txt   \
              tor-win32-mingw-creation.txt torify.1
 
-man_MANS = tor.1 tor-resolve.1 tor-gencert.1 torify.1
+nodist_man_MANS = tor.1 tor-resolve.1 tor-gencert.1 torify.1 $(asciidoc_files:=.1)
+
+doc_DATA = $(asciidoc_files:=.html)
+
+asciidoc_product = $(nodist_man_MANS) $(doc_DATA)
 
 SUBDIRS = design-paper spec
 
 DIST_SUBDIRS = design-paper spec
 
+# Generate the html documentation from asciidoc, but don't do
+# machine-specific replacements yet
+$(html_in) :
+	$(top_srcdir)/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh html @ASCIIDOC@ @SED@ $@
+
+# Generate the manpage from asciidoc, but don't do
+# machine-specific replacements yet
+$(man_in) :
+	$(top_srcdir)/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh man @A2X@ @SED@ $@
+
+# use ../config.status to swap all machine-specific magic strings
+# in the asciidoc with their replacements.
+$(asciidoc_product) :
+	../config.status --file=$@;
diff --git a/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh b/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..90a003d49
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# Copyright (c) The Tor Project, Inc.
+# See LICENSE for licensing information
+# Run this to generate .html.in or .1.in files from asciidoc files.
+# Arguments:
+# html|man asciidocpath sedpath outputfile
+
+set -e
+
+if [ $# != 4 ]; then
+  exit 1;
+fi
+
+output=$4
+input=`echo $output | $3 -e 's/html\.in$/1\.txt/g' -e 's/1\.in$/1\.txt/g'`
+base=`echo $output | $3 -e 's/\.html\.in$//g' -e 's/\.1\.in$//g'`
+
+if [ "$1" = "html" ]; then
+    if [ "$2" != none ]; then
+      "$2" -d manpage -o $output $input;
+    else
+      echo "==================================";
+      echo;
+      echo "The manpage in html form for $base will ";
+      echo "NOT be available, because asciidoc doesn't appear to be ";
+      echo "installed!";
+      echo;
+      echo "==================================";
+    fi
+elif [ "$1" = "man" ]; then
+    if test "$2" != none; then
+      if $2 -f manpage $input; then
+        mv $base.1 $output;
+      else
+        echo "==================================";
+        echo;
+        echo "a2x is installed, but some required docbook support files are";
+        echo "missing. Please install docbook-xsl and docbook-xml (Debian)";
+        echo "or similar.";
+        echo;
+        echo "==================================";
+      fi;
+    else
+      echo "==================================";
+      echo;
+      echo "The manpage for $base will NOT be ";
+      echo "available, because a2x doesn't appear to be installed!";
+      echo;
+      echo "==================================";
+    fi
+fi
+
+touch $output; \