diff --git a/openerp/tools/config.py b/openerp/tools/config.py
index d5ab9be1b81..72663b31f1c 100644
--- a/openerp/tools/config.py
+++ b/openerp/tools/config.py
@@ -73,7 +73,13 @@ def _get_default_datadir():
     return func(appname=release.product_name, appauthor=release.author)
 
 class configmanager(object):
-    def __init__(self):
+    def __init__(self, fname=None):
+        """Constructor.
+
+        :param fname: a shortcut allowing to instantiate :class:`configmanager`
+                      from Python code without resorting to environment
+                      variable
+        """
         # Options not exposed on the command line. Command line options will be added
         # from optparse's parser.
         self.options = {
@@ -94,6 +100,7 @@ class configmanager(object):
         self.casts = {}
 
         self.misc = {}
+        self.config_file = fname
         self.has_ssl = check_ssl()
 
         self._LOGLEVELS = dict([
@@ -377,7 +384,7 @@ class configmanager(object):
             rcfilepath = os.path.expanduser('~/.openerp_serverrc')
 
         self.rcfile = os.path.abspath(
-            opt.config or os.environ.get('OPENERP_SERVER') or rcfilepath)
+            self.config_file or opt.config or os.environ.get('OPENERP_SERVER') or rcfilepath)
         self.load()
 
         # Verify that we want to log or not, if not the output will go to stdout