diff --git a/Changelog.md b/Changelog.md
index 77ec8818..507dc38c 100644
--- a/Changelog.md
+++ b/Changelog.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # Changelog
 
 **latest**
+- fix git over ssh when the default http/https ports are not used.
 - compile the assets only if it does not exist or if the gitlab version has changed.
 - upgrade gitlab-shell to version 1.9.4
 - cache compiled assets to boost application startup.
diff --git a/assets/config/gitlab-shell/config.yml b/assets/config/gitlab-shell/config.yml
index f3619b19..905b0bc2 100644
--- a/assets/config/gitlab-shell/config.yml
+++ b/assets/config/gitlab-shell/config.yml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 user: git
 
 # Url to gitlab instance. Used for api calls. Should end with a slash.
-gitlab_url: "http://{{GITLAB_HOST}}/"
+gitlab_url: "{{GITLAB_URL}}"
 
 http_settings:
 #  user: someone
diff --git a/assets/init b/assets/init
index 13c58827..16ed2a50 100755
--- a/assets/init
+++ b/assets/init
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 set -e
 
 GITLAB_HOST=${GITLAB_HOST:-localhost}
-GITLAB_PORT=${GITLAB_PORT:-80}
+GITLAB_PORT=${GITLAB_PORT:-}
 GITLAB_HTTPS=${GITLAB_HTTPS:-false}
 GITLAB_EMAIL=${GITLAB_EMAIL:-gitlab@localhost}
 GITLAB_SUPPORT=${GITLAB_SUPPORT:-support@localhost}
@@ -84,6 +84,17 @@ case "${DB_TYPE}" in
 	*) echo "Unsupported database adapter. Available adapters are mysql and postgres." && exit 1 ;;
 esac
 
+case "${GITLAB_HTTPS}" in
+	true)
+		GITLAB_URL="https://${GITLAB_HOST}${GITLAB_PORT:+:$GITLAB_PORT}/"
+		GITLAB_PORT=${GITLAB_PORT:-443}
+		;;
+	*)
+		GITLAB_URL="http://${GITLAB_HOST}${GITLAB_PORT:+:$GITLAB_PORT}/"
+		GITLAB_PORT=${GITLAB_PORT:-80}
+		;;
+esac
+
 case "${GITLAB_BACKUPS}" in
 	daily|monthly) GITLAB_BACKUP_EXPIRY=${GITLAB_BACKUP_EXPIRY:-604800} ;;
 	disable|*) GITLAB_BACKUP_EXPIRY=${GITLAB_BACKUP_EXPIRY:-0} ;;
@@ -223,10 +234,16 @@ sudo -u git -H sed 's/{{REDIS_HOST}}/'"${REDIS_HOST}"'/' -i /home/git/gitlab/con
 sudo -u git -H sed 's/{{REDIS_PORT}}/'"${REDIS_PORT}"'/' -i /home/git/gitlab/config/resque.yml
 
 # configure gitlab-shell
-sudo -u git -H sed 's/{{GITLAB_HOST}}/'"${GITLAB_HOST}:${GITLAB_PORT}"'/' -i /home/git/gitlab-shell/config.yml
+sudo -u git -H sed 's,{{GITLAB_URL}},'"${GITLAB_URL}"',' -i /home/git/gitlab-shell/config.yml
 sudo -u git -H sed 's/{{REDIS_HOST}}/'"${REDIS_HOST}"'/' -i /home/git/gitlab-shell/config.yml
 sudo -u git -H sed 's/{{REDIS_PORT}}/'"${REDIS_PORT}"'/' -i /home/git/gitlab-shell/config.yml
 
+# hack: make git over ssh work when the default http/https ports are not used.
+case "${GITLAB_HTTPS}" in
+	true) sed -i 's,#{config.gitlab_url}/api/v3/internal,https://localhost/api/v3/internal,' -i /home/git/gitlab-shell/lib/gitlab_net.rb ;;
+	   *) sed -i 's,#{config.gitlab_url}/api/v3/internal,http://localhost/api/v3/internal,' -i /home/git/gitlab-shell/lib/gitlab_net.rb ;;
+esac
+
 # configure unicorn workers
 sed 's/{{UNICORN_WORKERS}}/'"${UNICORN_WORKERS}"'/' -i /home/git/gitlab/config/unicorn.rb
 
@@ -346,8 +363,11 @@ EOF
 	crontab -u git /tmp/cron.git && rm -rf /tmp/cron.git
 
 	# kickstart the rails application
-	wget "http://localhost" -O /dev/null
-
+	if [ "${GITLAB_HTTPS}" == "true" ]; then
+		wget --no-check-certificate "https://${GITLAB_HOST}" -O /dev/null
+	else
+		wget "http://${GITLAB_HOST}" -O /dev/null
+	fi
 
 	# watch the access logs
 	tail -F /var/log/nginx/gitlab_access.log