diff --git a/man/custom-entities.ent.in b/man/custom-entities.ent.in
index 6338ad13f9..1f3ecefe61 100644
--- a/man/custom-entities.ent.in
+++ b/man/custom-entities.ent.in
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 <!ENTITY FALLBACK_HOSTNAME "{{FALLBACK_HOSTNAME}}">
 <!ENTITY MEMORY_ACCOUNTING_DEFAULT "{{ 'yes' if MEMORY_ACCOUNTING_DEFAULT else 'no' }}">
 <!ENTITY KILL_USER_PROCESSES "{{ 'yes' if KILL_USER_PROCESSES else 'no' }}">
+<!ENTITY JOURNAL_STORAGE_DEFAULT "{{JOURNAL_STORAGE_DEFAULT}}">
 <!ENTITY DEBUGTTY "{{DEBUGTTY}}">
 <!ENTITY SYSTEM_SYSVRCLOCAL_PATH "{{SYSTEM_SYSVRCLOCAL_PATH}}">
 <!ENTITY HIGH_RLIMIT_NOFILE "{{HIGH_RLIMIT_NOFILE}}">
diff --git a/man/journald.conf.xml b/man/journald.conf.xml
index 1d615b110d..322fe6d17b 100644
--- a/man/journald.conf.xml
+++ b/man/journald.conf.xml
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 <?xml version='1.0'?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
-  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd">
+  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
+<!ENTITY % entities SYSTEM "custom-entities.ent" >
+%entities;
+]>
 <!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
 
 <refentry id="journald.conf"
@@ -82,8 +85,9 @@
         <filename>/var/log/journal</filename> directory exists, and <literal>volatile</literal> otherwise
         (the existence of the directory controls the storage mode). <literal>none</literal> turns off all
         storage, all log data received will be dropped (but forwarding to other targets, such as the console,
-        the kernel log buffer, or a syslog socket will still work). Defaults to <literal>auto</literal> in
-        the default journal namespace, and <literal>persistent</literal> in all others.</para>
+        the kernel log buffer, or a syslog socket will still work). Defaults to
+        <literal>&JOURNAL_STORAGE_DEFAULT;</literal> in the default journal namespace (this value is
+        determined at compilation time), and <literal>persistent</literal> in all others.</para>
 
         <para>Note that journald will initially use volatile storage, until a call to
         <command>journalctl --flush</command> (or sending <constant>SIGUSR1</constant> to journald) will cause
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 599d2a3217..055ee31ee4 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -117,6 +117,9 @@ conf.set10('BUMP_PROC_SYS_FS_FILE_MAX', get_option('bump-proc-sys-fs-file-max'))
 conf.set10('BUMP_PROC_SYS_FS_NR_OPEN',  get_option('bump-proc-sys-fs-nr-open'))
 conf.set('HIGH_RLIMIT_NOFILE',          512*1024)
 
+conf.set('JOURNAL_STORAGE_DEFAULT',     get_option('journal-storage-default'))
+conf.set('JOURNAL_STORAGE_DEFAULT_VAL', 'STORAGE_' + get_option('journal-storage-default').to_upper())
+
 # Meson ignores the preceding arguments when joining paths if an absolute
 # component is encountered, so this should canonicalize various paths when they
 # are absolute or relative.
@@ -3096,6 +3099,7 @@ summary({
         'default locale'                            : default_locale,
         'default nspawn locale'                     : nspawn_locale,
         'default status unit format'                : status_unit_format_default,
+        'default journal storage mode'              : conf.get('JOURNAL_STORAGE_DEFAULT'),
         'default user $PATH'                        : default_user_path != '' ? default_user_path : '(same as system services)',
         'systemd service watchdog'                  : service_watchdog == '' ? 'disabled' : service_watchdog,
         'time epoch'                                : f'@time_epoch@ (@alt_time_epoch@)',
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 1d7c4f4bd2..f8a0fe3712 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -139,6 +139,8 @@ option('timedated', type : 'boolean',
        description : 'install the systemd-timedated daemon')
 option('timesyncd', type : 'boolean',
        description : 'install the systemd-timesyncd daemon')
+option('journal-storage-default', type : 'combo', choices : ['auto', 'volatile', 'persistent', 'none'],
+       description : 'default storage mode for journald (main namespace)')
 option('remote', type : 'feature', deprecated : { 'true' : 'enabled', 'false' : 'disabled' },
        description : 'support for "journal over the network"')
 option('create-log-dirs', type : 'boolean',
diff --git a/src/journal/journald-config.c b/src/journal/journald-config.c
index 8cffec880b..de78a40008 100644
--- a/src/journal/journald-config.c
+++ b/src/journal/journald-config.c
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ void manager_merge_configs(Manager *m) {
 
         journal_config_done(&m->config);
 
-        MERGE_NON_NEGATIVE(storage, STORAGE_AUTO);
+        MERGE_NON_NEGATIVE(storage, JOURNAL_STORAGE_DEFAULT_VAL);
         manager_merge_journal_compress_options(m);
         MERGE_NON_NEGATIVE(seal, true);
         /* By default, /dev/kmsg is read only by the main namespace instance. */
diff --git a/src/journal/journald.conf.in b/src/journal/journald.conf.in
index 9a12ca7657..805b79bc8a 100644
--- a/src/journal/journald.conf.in
+++ b/src/journal/journald.conf.in
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 # See journald.conf(5) for details.
 
 [Journal]
-#Storage=auto
+#Storage={{ JOURNAL_STORAGE_DEFAULT }}
 #Compress=yes
 #Seal=yes
 #SplitMode=uid