Index: Article.php
===================================================================
--- Article.php	(revision 19917)
+++ Article.php	(working copy)
@@ -2832,12 +2832,17 @@
 		#New page autosummaries
 		if ($flags & EDIT_NEW && strlen($newtext)) {
 			#If they're making a new article, give its text, truncated, in the summary.
-			global $wgContLang;
-			$truncatedtext = $wgContLang->truncate(
-				str_replace("\n", ' ', $newtext),
-				max( 0, 200 - strlen( wfMsgForContent( 'autosumm-new') ) ),
-				'...' );
-			$summary = wfMsgForContent( 'autosumm-new', $truncatedtext );
+			global $wgAutoSummChars;
+			if ($wgAutoSummChars > 0) {
+				global $wgContLang;
+				$truncatedtext = $wgContLang->truncate(
+					str_replace("\n", ' ', $newtext),
+					max( 0, $wgAutoSummChars - strlen( wfMsgForContent( 'autosumm-new') ) ),
+					'...' );
+				$summary = wfMsgForContent( 'autosumm-new', $truncatedtext );
+			} else {
+				$summary = "";
+			}
 		}
 
 		if ($summary)
Index: DefaultSettings.php
===================================================================
--- DefaultSettings.php	(revision 19917)
+++ DefaultSettings.php	(working copy)
@@ -2457,4 +2457,10 @@
  */
 $wgEnableCascadingProtection = true;
 
+/**
+ * Set this to "0" to disable auto-summaries.
+ * Otherwise, specify the max. number of characters for auto-summaries.
+ */
+$wgAutoSummChars = 200;
+
 ?>