diff --git a/core/modules/aggregator/aggregator.pages.inc b/core/modules/aggregator/aggregator.pages.inc
index ebb561b..7f82077 100644
--- a/core/modules/aggregator/aggregator.pages.inc
+++ b/core/modules/aggregator/aggregator.pages.inc
@@ -404,12 +404,12 @@ function aggregator_page_rss() {
   // arg(2) is the passed cid, only select for that category.
   if (arg(2)) {
     $category = db_query('SELECT cid, title FROM {aggregator_category} WHERE cid = :cid', array(':cid' => arg(2)))->fetchObject();
-    $result = db_query_range('SELECT i.*, f.title AS ftitle, f.link AS flink FROM {aggregator_category_item} c LEFT JOIN {aggregator_item} i ON c.iid = i.iid LEFT JOIN {aggregator_feed} f ON i.fid = f.fid WHERE cid = :cid ORDER BY timestamp DESC, i.iid DESC', 0, variable_get('feed_default_items', 10), array(':cid' => $category->cid));
+    $result = db_query_range('SELECT i.*, f.title AS ftitle, f.link AS flink FROM {aggregator_category_item} c LEFT JOIN {aggregator_item} i ON c.iid = i.iid LEFT JOIN {aggregator_feed} f ON i.fid = f.fid WHERE cid = :cid ORDER BY timestamp DESC, i.iid DESC', 0, config('system.rss-publishing')->get('feed_default_items'), array(':cid' => $category->cid));
   }
   // Or, get the default aggregator items.
   else {
     $category = NULL;
-    $result = db_query_range('SELECT i.*, f.title AS ftitle, f.link AS flink FROM {aggregator_item} i INNER JOIN {aggregator_feed} f ON i.fid = f.fid ORDER BY i.timestamp DESC, i.iid DESC', 0, variable_get('feed_default_items', 10));
+    $result = db_query_range('SELECT i.*, f.title AS ftitle, f.link AS flink FROM {aggregator_item} i INNER JOIN {aggregator_feed} f ON i.fid = f.fid ORDER BY i.timestamp DESC, i.iid DESC', 0, config('system.rss-publishing')->get('feed_default_items'));
   }
 
   $feeds = $result->fetchAll();
@@ -435,7 +435,7 @@ function theme_aggregator_page_rss($variables) {
   drupal_add_http_header('Content-Type', 'application/rss+xml; charset=utf-8');
 
   $items = '';
-  $feed_length = variable_get('feed_item_length', 'fulltext');
+  $feed_length = config('system.rss-publishing')->get('feed_item_length');
   foreach ($feeds as $feed) {
     switch ($feed_length) {
       case 'teaser':
diff --git a/core/modules/aggregator/aggregator.test b/core/modules/aggregator/aggregator.test
index afba181..0668e2e 100644
--- a/core/modules/aggregator/aggregator.test
+++ b/core/modules/aggregator/aggregator.test
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ class AggregatorTestCase extends WebTestBase {
    */
   function getDefaultFeedItemCount() {
     // Our tests are based off of rss.xml, so let's find out how many elements should be related.
-    $feed_count = db_query_range('SELECT COUNT(*) FROM {node} n WHERE n.promote = 1 AND n.status = 1', 0, variable_get('feed_default_items', 10))->fetchField();
+    $feed_count = db_query_range('SELECT COUNT(*) FROM {node} n WHERE n.promote = 1 AND n.status = 1', 0, config('system.rss-publishing')->get('feed_default_items'))->fetchField();
     return $feed_count > 10 ? 10 : $feed_count;
   }
 
@@ -907,7 +907,9 @@ class AggregatorRenderingTestCase extends AggregatorTestCase {
   public function testFeedPage() {
     // Increase the number of items published in the rss.xml feed so we have
     // enough articles to test paging.
-    variable_set('feed_default_items', 30);
+    $config = config('system.rss-publishing');
+    $config->set('feed_default_items', 30);
+    $config->save();
 
     // Create a feed with 30 items.
     $this->createSampleNodes(30);
@@ -920,7 +922,8 @@ class AggregatorRenderingTestCase extends AggregatorTestCase {
     $this->assertTrue(!empty($elements), t('Individual source page contains a pager.'));
 
     // Reset the number of items in rss.xml to the default value.
-    variable_set('feed_default_items', 10);
+    $config->set('feed_default_items', 10);
+    $config->save();
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/core/modules/node/node.module b/core/modules/node/node.module
index 8dbc060..bbef71d 100644
--- a/core/modules/node/node.module
+++ b/core/modules/node/node.module
@@ -2385,13 +2385,13 @@ function node_feed($nids = FALSE, $channel = array()) {
       ->condition('n.promote', 1)
       ->condition('n.status', 1)
       ->orderBy('n.created', 'DESC')
-      ->range(0, variable_get('feed_default_items', 10))
+      ->range(0, config('system.rss-publishing')->get('feed_default_items'))
       ->addTag('node_access')
       ->execute()
       ->fetchCol();
   }
 
-  $item_length = variable_get('feed_item_length', 'fulltext');
+  $item_length = config('system.rss-publishing')->get('feed_item_length');
   $namespaces = array('xmlns:dc' => 'http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/');
   $teaser = ($item_length == 'teaser');
 
@@ -2431,7 +2431,7 @@ function node_feed($nids = FALSE, $channel = array()) {
     'version'     => '2.0',
     'title'       => variable_get('site_name', 'Drupal'),
     'link'        => $base_url,
-    'description' => variable_get('feed_description', ''),
+    'description' => config('system.rss-publishing')->get('feed_description'),
     'language'    => $language_content->langcode
   );
   $channel_extras = array_diff_key($channel, $channel_defaults);
diff --git a/core/modules/system/config/system.rss-publishing.xml b/core/modules/system/config/system.rss-publishing.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f9a78a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/modules/system/config/system.rss-publishing.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<config>
+  <feed_description></feed_description>
+  <feed_default_items>10</feed_default_items>
+  <feed_item_length>fulltext</feed_item_length>
+</config>
diff --git a/core/modules/system/system.admin.inc b/core/modules/system/system.admin.inc
index dcc289a..94b7544 100644
--- a/core/modules/system/system.admin.inc
+++ b/core/modules/system/system.admin.inc
@@ -1867,29 +1867,45 @@ function system_image_toolkit_settings() {
  * @ingroup forms
  * @see system_settings_form()
  */
-function system_rss_feeds_settings() {
+function system_rss_feeds_settings($form, &$form_state) {
   $form['feed_description'] = array(
     '#type' => 'textarea',
     '#title' => t('Feed description'),
-    '#default_value' => variable_get('feed_description', ''),
+    '#default_value' => config('system.rss-publishing')->get('feed_description'),
     '#description' => t('Description of your site, included in each feed.')
   );
   $form['feed_default_items'] = array(
     '#type' => 'select',
     '#title' => t('Number of items in each feed'),
-    '#default_value' => variable_get('feed_default_items', 10),
+    '#default_value' => config('system.rss-publishing')->get('feed_default_items'),
     '#options' => drupal_map_assoc(array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30)),
     '#description' => t('Default number of items to include in each feed.')
   );
   $form['feed_item_length'] = array(
     '#type' => 'select',
     '#title' => t('Feed content'),
-    '#default_value' => variable_get('feed_item_length', 'fulltext'),
+    '#default_value' => config('system.rss-publishing')->get('feed_item_length'),
     '#options' => array('title' => t('Titles only'), 'teaser' => t('Titles plus teaser'), 'fulltext' => t('Full text')),
     '#description' => t('Global setting for the default display of content items in each feed.')
   );
+  $form['submit'] = array('#type' => 'submit', '#value' => t('Submit'));
 
-  return system_settings_form($form);
+  return $form;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Form builder submit handler; Handle submission for RSS feeds settings.
+ *
+ * @ingroup forms
+ * @see system_settings_form()
+ */
+function system_rss_feeds_settings_submit($form, &$form_state) {
+  // Set the RSS publishing parameters.
+  $config = config('system.rss-publishing');
+  $config->set('feed_description', $form_state['values']['feed_description']);
+  $config->set('feed_default_items', $form_state['values']['feed_default_items']);
+  $config->set('feed_item_length', $form_state['values']['feed_item_length']);
+  $config->save();
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/core/modules/system/system.install b/core/modules/system/system.install
index 83def52..4655762 100644
--- a/core/modules/system/system.install
+++ b/core/modules/system/system.install
@@ -1855,6 +1855,13 @@ function system_update_8008() {
   variable_del('clean_url');
 }
 
+ /**
+ * Moves system settings from variable to config.
+ */
+function system_update_8006() {
+  update_variables_to_config('system.rss-publishing');
+}
+
 /**
  * @} End of "defgroup updates-7.x-to-8.x"
  * The next series of updates should start at 9000.
diff --git a/core/modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc b/core/modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc
index 7f4fa45..a3995dc 100644
--- a/core/modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc
+++ b/core/modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ function taxonomy_term_feed(TaxonomyTerm $term) {
   // Only display the description if we have a single term, to avoid clutter and confusion.
   // HTML will be removed from feed description.
   $channel['description'] = check_markup($term->description, $term->format, '', TRUE);
-  $nids = taxonomy_select_nodes($term->tid, FALSE, variable_get('feed_default_items', 10));
+  $nids = taxonomy_select_nodes($term->tid, FALSE, config('system.rss-publishing')->get('feed_default_items'));
 
   node_feed($nids, $channel);
 }