diff --git a/scripts/git-srv-admin.sh b/scripts/git-srv-admin.sh
index b5a62fe1..3e4c354e 100644
--- a/scripts/git-srv-admin.sh
+++ b/scripts/git-srv-admin.sh
@@ -94,6 +94,13 @@ create_repo()
 	git init --bare --shared=0640 || fatal "git init failed"
 }
 
+read_project_metadata()
+{
+	local pd="$1"
+	local field="$2"
+	git -C $pd show HEAD:make/project.conf | sed -n "/^\[$field\]/,/^\[/ p" | grep -v '\[' | cat -s | sed '${/^$/d;}'
+}
+
 update_descriptions()
 {
 	[ -d $pdir ] || return 0
@@ -106,7 +113,8 @@ update_descriptions()
 		[ -d "$proj" ] || fatal "Failed to find project $pdir/$proj"
 		local tmp=`mktemp /tmp/$myname-XXXXXXX`
 		local descr=$proj/description
-		git -C $proj show HEAD:make/project.conf | sed -n '/^\[description\]/,/^\[/ p' | grep -v '\[' | cat -s | sed '${/^$/d;}' > $tmp
+		read_project_metadata $proj summary > $tmp
+		[ -s "$tmp" ] || read_project_metadata $proj description > $tmp
 		if [ -s "$tmp" ] && ! diff -q "$tmp" "$descr" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
 			chown --reference=$proj $tmp
 			chmod 640 $tmp