diff --git a/includes/bootstrap.inc b/includes/bootstrap.inc
index 003a201..95c5ff3 100644
--- a/includes/bootstrap.inc
+++ b/includes/bootstrap.inc
@@ -191,6 +191,31 @@ function timer_stop($name) {
  * 12. $confdir/org
  *
  * 13. $confdir/default
+ *
+ * If a file named sites.php is present in the $confdir, it will be loaded
+ * prior to scanning for directories.  It should define an associative array
+ * named $sites, which maps domains to directories.  It should be in the form
+ * of:
+ *
+ * $sites = array(
+ *   'The url to alias' => 'A directory within the sites directory'
+ * );
+ *
+ * For example:
+ *
+ * $sites = array(
+ *   'devexample.com' => 'example.com',
+ *   'localhost/example' => 'example.com',
+ * );
+ *
+ * The above array will cause Drupal to look for a directory named
+ * "example.com" in the sites directory whenever a request comes from
+ * "example.com", "devexample.com", or "localhost/example". That is useful
+ * on development servers, where the domain name may not be the same as the
+ * domain of the live server.  Since Drupal stores file paths into the database
+ * (files, system table, etc.) this will ensure the paths are correct while
+ * accessed on development servers.
+ *
  */
 function conf_path() {
   static $conf = '';
@@ -200,11 +225,21 @@ function conf_path() {
   }
 
   $confdir = 'sites';
+  
+  $sites = array();
+  if (file_exists($confdir . '/sites.php')) {
+    // This will overwrite $sites with the desired mappings.
+    include($confdir . '/sites.php');
+  }
+  
   $uri = explode('/', $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] ? $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] : $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']);
   $server = explode('.', implode('.', array_reverse(explode(':', rtrim($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'], '.')))));
   for ($i = count($uri) - 1; $i > 0; $i--) {
     for ($j = count($server); $j > 0; $j--) {
       $dir = implode('.', array_slice($server, -$j)) . implode('.', array_slice($uri, 0, $i));
+      if (isset($sites[$dir]) && file_exists($confdir . '/' . $sites[$dir])) {
+        $dir = $sites[$dir];
+      }
       if (file_exists("$confdir/$dir/settings.php")) {
         $conf = "$confdir/$dir";
         return $conf;