diff --git a/elements/source-repositories/README.md b/elements/source-repositories/README.md
index f72168f0..5243c441 100644
--- a/elements/source-repositories/README.md
+++ b/elements/source-repositories/README.md
@@ -81,3 +81,11 @@ of the repositories (by users or by other elements).
 The repository names and types are written to an environment.d hook script at
 01-source-repositories-environment. This allows later hook scripts during the
 install.d phase to know which install type to use for the element.
+
+The base url for all git repositories can be set by use of:
+
+    DIB_GITREPOBASE
+
+So setting DIB\_GITREPOBASE=https://github.com/ when the repo location is set
+to http://git.openstack.org/openstack/nova.git will result in use of the
+https://github.com/openstack/nova.git repository.
diff --git a/elements/source-repositories/extra-data.d/98-source-repositories b/elements/source-repositories/extra-data.d/98-source-repositories
index 61bc9618..7239a473 100755
--- a/elements/source-repositories/extra-data.d/98-source-repositories
+++ b/elements/source-repositories/extra-data.d/98-source-repositories
@@ -46,6 +46,16 @@ function get_repos_for_element(){
 
             case $REPOTYPE in
             git)
+                if [ -z "${!REPOLOCATION_OVERRIDE:-""}" -a -n "${DIB_GITREPOBASE:-""}" ] ; then
+                    # Transform the current repo base to the new one
+                    local NEW_REPOLOCATION=$(echo $REPOLOCATION |\
+                        sed "s,^[^:]\+://[^/]\+/\(~[^/]\+\)\?\(.*\)$,${DIB_GITREPOBASE}\2,g")
+                    echo "Transformed ${REPOLOCATION} to ${NEW_REPOLOCATION}"
+                    REPOLOCATION=$NEW_REPOLOCATION
+                    # Also update the cache location
+                    CACHE_NAME=$(echo "${REPOTYPE}_${REPOLOCATION}" | sha1sum | awk '{ print $1 }' )
+                    CACHE_PATH=~/.cache/image-create/repository-sources/$CACHE_NAME
+                fi
                 sudo mkdir -p $REPO_SUB_DIRECTORY
 
                 if [ ! -e "$CACHE_PATH" ] ; then