diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 5ae77cf42e4..361b660d401 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -13,3 +13,4 @@ nova.egg-info
 *.sqlite
 *.log
 *.mo
+tools/conf/nova.conf*
diff --git a/doc/source/runnova/flags.rst b/doc/source/runnova/flags.rst
index 3d16e1303e4..1c3f57dcccd 100644
--- a/doc/source/runnova/flags.rst
+++ b/doc/source/runnova/flags.rst
@@ -20,4 +20,6 @@ Flags and Flagfiles
 
 Nova uses a configuration file containing flags located in /etc/nova/nova.conf. You can get the most recent listing of avaialble flags by running nova-(servicename) --help, for example, nova-api --help. 
 
-The OpenStack wiki has a page with the flags listed by their purpose and use at http://wiki.openstack.org/FlagsGrouping.
\ No newline at end of file
+A script for generating a sample nova.conf file is located in *<nova_root>/tools/conf/run.sh*. This script traverses through the source code and retrieves information of every option that is defined. A file named *nova.conf.sample* will be placed in the same directory.
+
+The OpenStack wiki has a page with the flags listed by their purpose and use at http://wiki.openstack.org/FlagsGrouping.
diff --git a/nova/openstack/common/cfg.py b/nova/openstack/common/cfg.py
index a9ac0041168..b0240769e40 100644
--- a/nova/openstack/common/cfg.py
+++ b/nova/openstack/common/cfg.py
@@ -663,7 +663,7 @@ def __init__(self, name, title=None, help=None):
             self.title = title
         self.help = help
 
-        self._opts = {}  # dict of dicts of {opt:, override:, default:)
+        self._opts = {}  # dict of dicts of (opt:, override:, default:)
         self._optparse_group = None
 
     def _register_opt(self, opt):
diff --git a/tools/conf/create_conf.py b/tools/conf/create_conf.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..231fd9836b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/conf/create_conf.py
@@ -0,0 +1,152 @@
+# vim: tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 softtabstop=4
+
+# Copyright 2012 SINA Corporation
+# All Rights Reserved.
+# Author: Zhongyue Luo <lzyeval@gmail.com>
+#
+#    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+#    not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+#    a copy of the License at
+#
+#         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+#    WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+#    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+#    under the License.
+
+"""Generates a nova.conf file.
+
+"""
+
+import os
+import re
+import sys
+
+
+_PY_EXT = ".py"
+_SCREEN_WIDTH = 72
+_FLAGS = "FLAGS"
+
+_STROPT = "StrOpt"
+_BOOLOPT = "BoolOpt"
+_INTOPT = "IntOpt"
+_FLOATOPT = "FloatOpt"
+_LISTOPT = "ListOpt"
+_MULTISTROPT = "MultiStrOpt"
+
+_OPTION_CACHE = list()
+_OPTION_REGEX = re.compile(r"(%s)" % "|".join([_STROPT, _BOOLOPT, _INTOPT,
+                                               _FLOATOPT, _LISTOPT,
+                                               _MULTISTROPT]))
+
+
+def main(srcfiles):
+
+    def mod_prefer(mod_str):
+        prefer = ["flags.py", "log.py", "utils.py", "service.py"]
+        return prefer.index(mod_str) if mod_str in prefer else ord(mod_str[0])
+
+    def pkg_prefer(pkg_str):
+        prefer = ["auth", "api", "vnc", "ipv6", "network", "compute", "virt",
+                  "console", "consoleauth", "image"]
+        return prefer.index(pkg_str) if pkg_str in prefer else ord(pkg_str[0])
+
+    print '#', 'nova.conf sample\n'
+    # NOTE(lzyeval): sort top level modules and packages
+    #                to process modules first
+    mods_by_pkg = dict()
+    for filepath in srcfiles:
+        pkg_name = filepath.split(os.sep)[3]
+        mod_str = '.'.join(['.'.join(filepath.split(os.sep)[2:-1]),
+                            os.path.basename(filepath).split('.')[0]])
+        mods = mods_by_pkg.get(pkg_name, list())
+        if not mods:
+            mods_by_pkg[pkg_name] = mods
+        mods.append(mod_str)
+    # NOTE(lzyeval): place top level modules before packages
+    pkg_names = filter(lambda x: x.endswith(_PY_EXT), mods_by_pkg.keys())
+    pkg_names.sort(key=lambda x: mod_prefer(x))
+    ext_names = filter(lambda x: x not in pkg_names, mods_by_pkg.keys())
+    ext_names.sort(key=lambda x: pkg_prefer(x))
+    pkg_names.extend(ext_names)
+    for pkg_name in pkg_names:
+        mods = mods_by_pkg.get(pkg_name)
+        mods.sort()
+        for mod_str in mods:
+            print_module(mod_str)
+
+
+def print_module(mod_str):
+    opts = list()
+    flags = None
+    if mod_str.endswith('.__init__'):
+        mod_str = mod_str[:mod_str.rfind(".")]
+    try:
+        __import__(mod_str)
+        flags = getattr(sys.modules[mod_str], _FLAGS)
+    except (ValueError, AttributeError), err:
+        return
+    except ImportError, ie:
+        sys.stderr.write("%s\n" % str(ie))
+        return
+    except Exception, e:
+        return
+    for opt_name, opt_dict in sorted(flags._opts.items(),
+                                     key=lambda (x, y): x):
+        # check if option was processed
+        if opt_name in _OPTION_CACHE:
+            continue
+        opts.append(opt_dict['opt'])
+        _OPTION_CACHE.append(opt_name)
+    # return if flags has no unique options
+    if not opts:
+        return
+    # print out module info
+    remain_width = _SCREEN_WIDTH - len(mod_str) - 5
+    print '#' * _SCREEN_WIDTH
+    print '#', mod_str,
+    if remain_width > 0:
+        print " " * remain_width, "#"
+    else:
+        print
+    print '#' * _SCREEN_WIDTH
+    print
+    for opt in opts:
+        print_opt(opt)
+    print
+
+
+def print_opt(opt):
+    opt_type = None
+    try:
+        opt_type = _OPTION_REGEX.search(str(type(opt))).group(0)
+    except (ValueError, AttributeError), err:
+        sys.stderr.write("%s\n" % str(err))
+        sys.exit(1)
+    # print out option info
+    print "#", "".join(["(", opt_type, ")"]), opt.help
+    if opt_type == _BOOLOPT:
+        if opt.default is True:
+            print "# Comment line to disable"
+        else:
+            print "# Uncomment line to enable"
+            print "#",
+        print ''.join(["--", opt.name])
+    else:
+        opt_value = str(opt.default)
+        if (opt.default is None or
+            (isinstance(opt.default, str) and not opt.default)):
+            opt_value = "<%s>" % opt.name
+            print "#",
+        print ''.join(["--", opt.name, "=", opt_value])
+    print
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    if len(sys.argv) < 2:
+        print "usage: python %s [srcfile]...\n" % sys.argv[0]
+        sys.exit(0)
+    main(sys.argv[1:])
+    print "#", "Total option count: %d" % len(_OPTION_CACHE)
diff --git a/tools/conf/run.sh b/tools/conf/run.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..f03a77f6793
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/conf/run.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# vim: tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 softtabstop=4
+
+# Copyright 2012 SINA Corporation
+# All Rights Reserved.
+# Author: Zhongyue Luo <lzyeval@gmail.com>
+#
+#    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+#    not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+#    a copy of the License at
+#
+#         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+#    WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+#    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+#    under the License.
+
+find ../../nova -type f -name "*.py" ! -path "../../nova/tests/*" -exec grep -l "Opt(" {} \; | sort -u | xargs python create_conf.py > nova.conf.sample