diff --git a/elasticsearch/Dockerfile b/elasticsearch/Dockerfile
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 8d77c0b1..98ed9677
--- a/elasticsearch/Dockerfile
+++ b/elasticsearch/Dockerfile
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ FROM itzg/ubuntu-openjdk-7
 
 MAINTAINER itzg
 
-ENV ES_VERSION 1.6.0
+ENV ES_VERSION 1.7.0
 
 RUN wget -qO /tmp/es.tgz https://download.elasticsearch.org/elasticsearch/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-$ES_VERSION.tar.gz && \
   cd /usr/share && \
diff --git a/elasticsearch/README.md b/elasticsearch/README.md
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 9ddb75a0..a8a9742f
--- a/elasticsearch/README.md
+++ b/elasticsearch/README.md
@@ -67,6 +67,21 @@ environment variables (`-e`) like
 
     docker run ... -e NAME=VALUE ... itzg/elasticsearch
 
+Since Docker's `-e` settings are baked into the container definition, this image provides an
+extra feature to change any of the settings below for an existing container. Either
+create/edit the file `env` in the `/conf` volume mapping or edit within the running container's
+context using:
+
+    docker exec -it CONTAINER_ID vi /conf/env
+
+replacing `CONTAINER_ID` with the container's ID or name.
+
+The contents of the `/conf/env` file are standard shell
+
+    NAME=VALUE
+
+entries where `NAME` is one of the variables described below.
+
 ## Cluster Name
 
 If joining a pre-existing cluster, then you may need to specify a cluster name
diff --git a/elasticsearch/start b/elasticsearch/start
index ba20c619..3f60149b 100755
--- a/elasticsearch/start
+++ b/elasticsearch/start
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
+if [ -f /conf/env ]; then
+  . /conf/env
+fi
+
 if [ ! -e /conf/elasticsearch.* ]; then
   cp $ES_HOME/config/elasticsearch.yml /conf
 fi