diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 7d0e57261..c8b88d770 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ flexi_logger = "0.6.8"
 gdk-pixbuf = "0.2.0"
 gdk-pixbuf-sys = "0.4.0"
 gdk-sys = "0.4.0"
+getopts = "0.2.15"
 gio = "0.2.0"
 glib = "0.3.1"
 glib-sys = "0.4.0"
diff --git a/src/bin.rs b/src/bin.rs
index d191d68af..6d9cf671c 100644
--- a/src/bin.rs
+++ b/src/bin.rs
@@ -1,22 +1,66 @@
 #![feature(alloc_system)]
 extern crate alloc_system;
+extern crate getopts;
 
 extern crate pnmixerlib;
 
 use pnmixerlib::*;
 
 use app_state::*;
+use getopts::Options;
 use std::rc::Rc;
+use std::env;
 
 
 fn main() {
-    gtk::init().unwrap();
+    let args: Vec<String> = env::args().collect();
 
-    flexi_logger::LogOptions::new()
-       .log_to_file(false)
-       // ... your configuration options go here ...
-       .init(Some("pnmixer=debug".to_string()))
-       .unwrap_or_else(|e| panic!("Logger initialization failed with {}", e));
+    let mut opts = Options::new();
+    opts.optflag("h", "help", "Show help");
+    opts.optopt("", "log-to-file",
+                "Log files to the specified dir instead of stderr",
+                "DIRECTORY");
+    opts.optflagopt("l", "log-level",
+                "Set the log level (trace/debug/info/warn/error/off)",
+                "LEVEL");
+
+    let matches = match opts.parse(&args[1..]) {
+        Ok(m) => { m }
+        Err(f) => { panic!(f.to_string()) }
+    };
+
+    if matches.opt_present("h") {
+        print_usage(opts);
+        return;
+    }
+
+    let log_dir = matches.opt_str("log-to-file");
+    let log_level = matches.opt_default("log-level", "debug").map(|s| {
+        match s.to_lowercase().as_str() {
+            "trace" => flexi_logger::LogLevelFilter::Trace,
+            "debug" => flexi_logger::LogLevelFilter::Debug,
+            "info"  => flexi_logger::LogLevelFilter::Info,
+            "warn"  => flexi_logger::LogLevelFilter::Warn,
+            "error" => flexi_logger::LogLevelFilter::Error,
+            "off"   => flexi_logger::LogLevelFilter::Off,
+            _       => flexi_logger::LogLevelFilter::Debug,
+        }
+    }).unwrap_or(flexi_logger::LogLevelFilter::Off);
+
+    let mut flogger = flexi_logger::Logger::with(
+        flexi_logger::LogSpecification::default(log_level).build());
+
+    if let Some(dir) = log_dir {
+        flogger = flogger.log_to_file().directory(dir);
+    }
+
+    flogger
+        .start()
+        .unwrap_or_else(|e|{panic!("Logger initialization failed with {}",e)});
+
+
+    gtk::init()
+        .unwrap_or_else(|e| panic!("Gtk initialization failed with {}", e));
 
     let apps = Rc::new(new_alsa_appstate());
 
@@ -26,3 +70,9 @@ fn main() {
 
     // TODO: clean deallocation?
 }
+
+
+fn print_usage(opts: Options) {
+    let brief = format!("Usage: pnmixer-rs [options]");
+    print!("{}", opts.usage(&brief));
+}