diff --git a/src/linux/usr/share/man/man1/sbt.1 b/src/linux/usr/share/man/man1/sbt.1
index 27772cbdc..6dc5d7211 100644
--- a/src/linux/usr/share/man/man1/sbt.1
+++ b/src/linux/usr/share/man/man1/sbt.1
@@ -72,10 +72,15 @@ add -X to sbt's scalacOptions (-S is stripped)
 .RS
 The user configuration file.
 .RE
+.I ".jvmopts"
+.RS
+if this file exists in the current directory, its contents are appended
+to the JAVA_OPTS.
+.RE
 .I ".sbtopts"
 .RS
-if this file exists in the current directory, it is prepended to the
-runner args.
+if this file exists in the current directory, its contents are prepended
+to the runner args.
 .RE
 .I "/etc/sbt/sbtopts"
 .RS
diff --git a/src/universal/bin/sbt b/src/universal/bin/sbt
index 632d45fd5..d622f98ef 100755
--- a/src/universal/bin/sbt
+++ b/src/universal/bin/sbt
@@ -94,9 +94,11 @@ Usage: $script_name [options]
 
   # jvm options and output control
   JAVA_OPTS          environment variable, if unset uses "$java_opts"
+  .jvmopts           if this file exists in the current directory, its contents
+                     are appended to JAVA_OPTS
   SBT_OPTS           environment variable, if unset uses "$default_sbt_opts"
-  .sbtopts           if this file exists in the current directory, it is
-                     prepended to the runner args
+  .sbtopts           if this file exists in the current directory, its contents
+                     are prepended to the runner args
   /etc/sbt/sbtopts   if this file exists, it is prepended to the runner args
   -Dkey=val          pass -Dkey=val directly to the java runtime
   -J-X               pass option -X directly to the java runtime 
@@ -137,16 +139,14 @@ loadConfigFile() {
   done
 }
 
-# TODO - Pull in config based on operating system... (MSYS + cygwin should pull in txt file).
 # Here we pull in the global settings configuration.
 [[ -f "$etc_sbt_opts_file" ]] && set -- $(loadConfigFile "$etc_sbt_opts_file") "$@"
-# -- Windows behavior stub'd
-# JAVA_OPTS=$(cat "$WDIR/sbtconfig.txt" | sed -e 's/\r//g' -e 's/^#.*$//g' | sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/ /g')
-
 
 #  Pull in the project-level config file, if it exists.
 [[ -f "$sbt_opts_file" ]] && set -- $(loadConfigFile "$sbt_opts_file") "$@"
 
+#  Pull in the project-level java config, if it exists.
+[[ -f ".jvmopts" ]] && export JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS $(loadConfigFile .jvmopts)"
 
 run "$@"