diff --git a/django/bin/compile-messages.py b/django/bin/compile-messages.py
index 2e1e908bbf..2838cb8aa4 100755
--- a/django/bin/compile-messages.py
+++ b/django/bin/compile-messages.py
@@ -4,20 +4,31 @@ import optparse
 import os
 import sys
 
-def compile_messages(locale=None):
-    basedir = None
+try:
+    set
+except NameError:
+    from sets import Set as set     # For Python 2.3
 
-    if os.path.isdir(os.path.join('conf', 'locale')):
-        basedir = os.path.abspath(os.path.join('conf', 'locale'))
-    elif os.path.isdir('locale'):
-        basedir = os.path.abspath('locale')
-    else:
-        print "This script should be run from the Django SVN tree or your project or app tree."
+
+def compile_messages(locale=None):
+    basedirs = [os.path.join('conf', 'locale'), 'locale']
+    if os.environ.get('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'):
+        from django.conf import settings
+        basedirs += settings.LOCALE_PATHS
+
+    # Gather existing directories.
+    basedirs = set(map(os.path.abspath, filter(os.path.isdir, basedirs)))
+
+    if not basedirs:
+        print "This script should be run from the Django SVN tree or your project or app tree, or with the settings module specified."
         sys.exit(1)
 
-    if locale is not None:
-        basedir = os.path.join(basedir, locale, 'LC_MESSAGES')
+    for basedir in basedirs:
+        if locale:
+            basedir = os.path.join(basedir, locale, 'LC_MESSAGES')
+        compile_messages_in_dir(basedir)
 
+def compile_messages_in_dir(basedir):
     for dirpath, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(basedir):
         for f in filenames:
             if f.endswith('.po'):
@@ -40,9 +51,13 @@ def main():
     parser = optparse.OptionParser()
     parser.add_option('-l', '--locale', dest='locale',
             help="The locale to process. Default is to process all.")
+    parser.add_option('--settings',
+        help='Python path to settings module, e.g. "myproject.settings". If provided, all LOCALE_PATHS will be processed. If this isn\'t provided, the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable will be checked as well.')
     options, args = parser.parse_args()
     if len(args):
         parser.error("This program takes no arguments")
+    if options.settings:
+        os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = options.settings
     compile_messages(options.locale)
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
diff --git a/docs/i18n.txt b/docs/i18n.txt
index cffc58011e..bf73c88008 100644
--- a/docs/i18n.txt
+++ b/docs/i18n.txt
@@ -669,8 +669,11 @@ To create message files, you use the same ``make-messages.py`` tool as with the
 Django message files. You only need to be in the right place -- in the directory
 where either the ``conf/locale`` (in case of the source tree) or the ``locale/``
 (in case of app messages or project messages) directory are located. And you
-use the same ``compile-messages.py`` to produce the binary ``django.mo`` files that
-are used by ``gettext``.
+use the same ``compile-messages.py`` to produce the binary ``django.mo`` files
+that are used by ``gettext``.
+
+You can also run ``compile-message.py --settings=path.to.settings`` to make
+the compiler process all the directories in your ``LOCALE_PATHS`` setting.
 
 Application message files are a bit complicated to discover -- they need the
 ``LocaleMiddleware``. If you don't use the middleware, only the Django message