diff --git a/tools/patman/README b/tools/patman/README
index 16b51eb..2743da9 100644
--- a/tools/patman/README
+++ b/tools/patman/README
@@ -98,6 +98,22 @@ The checkpatch.pl in the U-Boot tools/ subdirectory will be located and
 used. Failing that you can put it into your path or ~/bin/checkpatch.pl
 
 
+If you want to change the defaults for patman's command-line arguments,
+you can add a [settings] section to your .patman file.  This can be used
+for any command line option by referring to the "dest" for the option in
+patman.py.  For reference, the useful ones (at the moment) shown below
+(all with the non-default setting):
+
+>>>
+
+[settings]
+ignore_errors: True
+process_tags: False
+verbose: True
+
+<<<
+
+
 How to run it
 =============
 
diff --git a/tools/patman/gitutil.py b/tools/patman/gitutil.py
index 41a74a5..ca3ba4a 100644
--- a/tools/patman/gitutil.py
+++ b/tools/patman/gitutil.py
@@ -384,8 +384,6 @@ def GetDefaultUserEmail():
 
 def Setup():
     """Set up git utils, by reading the alias files."""
-    settings.Setup('')
-
     # Check for a git alias file also
     alias_fname = GetAliasFile()
     if alias_fname:
diff --git a/tools/patman/patman.py b/tools/patman/patman.py
index 4181d80..b327c67 100755
--- a/tools/patman/patman.py
+++ b/tools/patman/patman.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ import checkpatch
 import command
 import gitutil
 import patchstream
+import settings
 import terminal
 import test
 
@@ -64,6 +65,8 @@ parser.usage = """patman [options]
 Create patches from commits in a branch, check them and email them as
 specified by tags you place in the commits. Use -n to """
 
+
+settings.Setup(parser, '')
 (options, args) = parser.parse_args()
 
 # Run our meagre tests
diff --git a/tools/patman/settings.py b/tools/patman/settings.py
index 4dda17b..5208f7d 100644
--- a/tools/patman/settings.py
+++ b/tools/patman/settings.py
@@ -88,13 +88,43 @@ def CreatePatmanConfigFile(config_fname):
     print >>f, "[alias]\nme: %s <%s>" % (name, email)
     f.close();
 
-def Setup(config_fname=''):
+def _UpdateDefaults(parser, config):
+    """Update the given OptionParser defaults based on config.
+
+    We'll walk through all of the settings from the parser
+    For each setting we'll look for a default in the option parser.
+    If it's found we'll update the option parser default.
+
+    The idea here is that the .patman file should be able to update
+    defaults but that command line flags should still have the final
+    say.
+
+    Args:
+        parser: An instance of an OptionParser whose defaults will be
+            updated.
+        config: An instance of SafeConfigParser that we will query
+            for settings.
+    """
+    defaults = parser.get_default_values()
+    for name, val in config.items('settings'):
+        if hasattr(defaults, name):
+            default_val = getattr(defaults, name)
+            if isinstance(default_val, bool):
+                val = config.getboolean('settings', name)
+            elif isinstance(default_val, int):
+                val = config.getint('settings', name)
+            parser.set_default(name, val)
+        else:
+            print "WARNING: Unknown setting %s" % name
+
+def Setup(parser, config_fname=''):
     """Set up the settings module by reading config files.
 
     Args:
+        parser:         The parser to update
         config_fname:   Config filename to read ('' for default)
     """
-    settings = ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser()
+    config = ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser()
     if config_fname == '':
         config_fname = '%s/.patman' % os.getenv('HOME')
 
@@ -102,11 +132,12 @@ def Setup(config_fname=''):
         print "No config file found ~/.patman\nCreating one...\n"
         CreatePatmanConfigFile(config_fname)
 
-    settings.read(config_fname)
+    config.read(config_fname)
 
-    for name, value in settings.items('alias'):
+    for name, value in config.items('alias'):
         alias[name] = value.split(',')
 
+    _UpdateDefaults(parser, config)
 
 # These are the aliases we understand, indexed by alias. Each member is a list.
 alias = {}