diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index dfa9684b1..7ea65a0d8 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -46,3 +46,4 @@ Trevor Bekolay
 David Mohr
 Nicolas Delaby
 Tom Viner
+Dave Hunt
diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index f03f80889..50813920c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 2.7.0.dev (compared to 2.6.4)
 -----------------------------
 
+- add ability to set command line options by environment variable PYTEST_ADDOPTS.
+
 - fix issue655: work around different ways that cause python2/3
   to leak sys.exc_info into fixtures/tests causing failures in 3rd party code
 
diff --git a/_pytest/config.py b/_pytest/config.py
index c92374569..f4be2d062 100644
--- a/_pytest/config.py
+++ b/_pytest/config.py
@@ -705,6 +705,7 @@ class Config(object):
     def _preparse(self, args, addopts=True):
         self._initini(args)
         if addopts:
+            args[:] = shlex.split(os.environ.get('PYTEST_ADDOPTS', '')) + args
             args[:] = self.getini("addopts") + args
         self._checkversion()
         self.pluginmanager.consider_preparse(args)
diff --git a/doc/en/customize.txt b/doc/en/customize.txt
index 74d30f7ab..d323dd638 100644
--- a/doc/en/customize.txt
+++ b/doc/en/customize.txt
@@ -60,6 +60,11 @@ progress output, you can write it into a configuration file::
     [pytest]
     addopts = -rsxX -q
 
+Alternatively, you can set a PYTEST_ADDOPTS environment variable to add command
+line options while the environment is in use::
+
+    export PYTEST_ADDOPTS="-rsxX -q"
+
 From now on, running ``pytest`` will add the specified options.
 
 Builtin configuration file options
diff --git a/testing/test_config.py b/testing/test_config.py
index aa96c1d56..9dc5e3f23 100644
--- a/testing/test_config.py
+++ b/testing/test_config.py
@@ -18,12 +18,16 @@ class TestParseIni:
     def test_getcfg_empty_path(self, tmpdir):
         getcfg([''], ['setup.cfg']) #happens on py.test ""
 
-    def test_append_parse_args(self, testdir, tmpdir):
+    def test_append_parse_args(self, testdir, tmpdir, monkeypatch):
+        monkeypatch.setenv('PYTEST_ADDOPTS', '--color no -rs --tb="short"')
         tmpdir.join("setup.cfg").write(py.code.Source("""
             [pytest]
             addopts = --verbose
         """))
         config = testdir.parseconfig(tmpdir)
+        assert config.option.color == 'no'
+        assert config.option.reportchars == 's'
+        assert config.option.tbstyle == 'short'
         assert config.option.verbose
         #config = testdir.Config()
         #args = [tmpdir,]