diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 2faf22c..ea9787e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ The Cacti Group | spine
 -issue#317: WARNING: MYSQL_OPT_RECONNECT is deprecated and will be removed in a future version.
 -issue#321: Spine does not check a host with no poller items
 -issue#323: Wrong number of devices in stats due to device 0 assumption
+-feature#329: Allow users to override the threads setting at the command line
 
 1.2.25
 -issue#234: Spine should see if script to be executed is executable
diff --git a/spine.c b/spine.c
index 2e83c1c..d71d31c 100644
--- a/spine.c
+++ b/spine.c
@@ -256,6 +256,9 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
 	/* initialize icmp_avail */
 	set.icmp_avail = TRUE;
 
+	/* initialize number of threads */
+	set.threads = 1;
+
 	/* detect and compensate for stdin/stderr ttys */
 	if (!isatty(fileno(stdout))) {
 		set.stdout_notty = TRUE;
@@ -358,6 +361,10 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
 			set.poller_id = atoi(getarg(opt, &argv));
 		}
 
+		else if (STRMATCH(arg, "-t") || STRIMATCH(arg, "--threads")) {
+			set.threads = atoi(getarg(opt, &argv));
+		}
+
 		else if (STRMATCH(arg, "-P") || STRIMATCH(arg, "--pingonly")) {
 			set.ping_only = TRUE;
 		}
@@ -1125,6 +1132,7 @@ static void display_help(int only_version) {
 		"  -l/--last=X        End polling with host id X",
 		"  -H/--hostlist=X    Poll the list of host ids, separated by comma's",
 		"  -p/--poller=X      Set the poller id to X",
+		"  -t/--threads=X     Override the database threads setting.",
 		"  -C/--conf=F        Read spine configuration from file F",
 		"  -O/--option=S:V    Override DB settings 'set' with value 'V'",
 		"  -M/--mibs          Refresh the device System Mib data",
diff --git a/util.c b/util.c
index 910c6ad..d97a00d 100644
--- a/util.c
+++ b/util.c
@@ -555,11 +555,13 @@ void read_config_options() {
 	SPINE_LOG_DEBUG(("DEBUG: The log_pstats variable is %i", set.log_pstats));
 
 	/* get Cacti defined max threads override spine.conf */
-	if ((res = getpsetting(&mysql, mode, "threads")) != 0) {
-		set.threads = atoi(res);
-		free((char *)res);
-		if (set.threads > MAX_THREADS) {
-			set.threads = MAX_THREADS;
+	if (set.threads == 1) {
+		if ((res = getpsetting(&mysql, mode, "threads")) != 0) {
+			set.threads = atoi(res);
+			free((char *)res);
+			if (set.threads > MAX_THREADS) {
+				set.threads = MAX_THREADS;
+			}
 		}
 	}