diff --git a/project/debian.scala b/project/debian.scala
index cdf449ba9..bc41b93a3 100644
--- a/project/debian.scala
+++ b/project/debian.scala
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ object DebianPkg {
   final val ControlFileContent = """Section: java
 Priority: optional
 Architecture: all
-Depends:   curl, java2-runtime, bash (>= 2.05a-11)
+Depends:   curl, java2-runtime, bash, sed
 Recommends: git
 Maintainer: Josh Suereth <joshua.suereth@typesafe.com>
 Description: Simple Build Tool
diff --git a/sbt b/sbt
index 8cf9956a8..794707621 100755
--- a/sbt
+++ b/sbt
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ declare -r default_sbt_opts="-XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled"
 declare -r default_sbt_mem=1536
 declare -r noshare_opts="-Dsbt.global.base=project/.sbtboot -Dsbt.boot.directory=project/.boot -Dsbt.ivy.home=project/.ivy"
 declare -r sbt_opts_file=".sbtopts"
+declare -r etc_sbt_opts_file="/etc/sbt/sbtopts"
 declare -r latest_28="2.8.2"
 declare -r latest_29="2.9.1"
 declare -r latest_210="2.10.0-SNAPSHOT"
@@ -309,8 +310,13 @@ process_args ()
   }
 }
 
-# if .sbtopts exists, prepend its contents to $@ so it can be processed by this runner
-[[ -f "$sbt_opts_file" ]] && set -- $(cat "$sbt_opts_file") "$@"
+loadConfigFile() {
+  cat "$1" | sed '/^\#/d'
+}
+
+# if sbtopts files exist, prepend their contents to $@ so it can be processed by this runner
+[[ -f "$etc_sbt_opts_file" ]] && set -- $(loadConfigFile "$etc_sbt_opts_file") "$@"
+[[ -f "$sbt_opts_file" ]] && set -- $(loadConfigFile "$sbt_opts_file") "$@"
 
 # process the combined args, then reset "$@" to the residuals
 process_args "$@"
diff --git a/src/debian/etc/sbt/sbtopts b/src/debian/etc/sbt/sbtopts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8373b437c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/debian/etc/sbt/sbtopts
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+# ------------------------------------------------ #
+#  The SBT Configuration file.                     #
+# ------------------------------------------------ #
+
+
+# Disable ANSI color codes
+#
+#-no-colors
+
+# Starts sbt even if the current directory contains no sbt project.
+#
+-sbt-create
+
+# Path to global settings/plugins directory (default: ~/.sbt)
+#
+#-sbt-dir  /etc/sbt
+
+# Path to shared boot directory (default: ~/.sbt/boot in 0.11 series)
+#
+#-sbt-boot ~/.sbt/boot  
+
+# Path to local Ivy repository (default: ~/.ivy2)
+#
+#-ivy ~/.ivy2
+
+# set memory options
+#
+#-mem   <integer>  
+
+# Use local caches for projects, no sharing.
+#
+#-no-share
+
+# Put SBT in offline mode.
+#
+#-offline
+
+# Sets the SBT version to use.
+#-sbt-version  0.11.2
+
+# Scala version (default: latest release)
+#
+#-scala-home <path>        
+#-scala-version <version>
+
+# java version (default: java from PATH, currently $(java -version |& grep version))
+#
+#-java-home <path>
+