diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7ec751f2fb0a2..f6beaa6323507 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ time before a new metric is included by the plugin.
 - [#1272](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/pull/1272): graphite parser: add ability to specify multiple tag keys, for consistency with influxdb parser.
 - [#1265](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/pull/1265): Make dns lookups for chrony configurable. Thanks @zbindenren!
 - [#1275](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/pull/1275): Allow wildcard filtering of varnish stats.
+- [#1142](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/pull/1142): Support for glob patterns in exec plugin commands configuration.
 
 ### Bugfixes
 
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/exec/README.md b/plugins/inputs/exec/README.md
index a75ae7856d3df..14acf0957092c 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/exec/README.md
+++ b/plugins/inputs/exec/README.md
@@ -6,14 +6,17 @@ Please also see: [Telegraf Input Data Formats](https://github.com/influxdata/tel
 
 #### Configuration
 
-In this example a script called ```/tmp/test.sh``` and a script called ```/tmp/test2.sh```
-are configured for ```[[inputs.exec]]``` in JSON format.
+In this example a script called ```/tmp/test.sh```, a script called ```/tmp/test2.sh```, and
+all scripts matching glob pattern ```/tmp/collect_*.sh``` are configured for ```[[inputs.exec]]```
+in JSON format. Glob patterns are matched on every run, so adding new scripts that match the pattern
+will cause them to be picked up immediately.
 
 ```
 # Read flattened metrics from one or more commands that output JSON to stdout
 [[inputs.exec]]
   # Shell/commands array
-  commands = ["/tmp/test.sh", "/tmp/test2.sh"]
+  # Full command line to executable with parameters, or a glob pattern to run all matching files.
+  commands = ["/tmp/test.sh", "/tmp/test2.sh", "/tmp/collect_*.sh"]
 
   # Data format to consume.
   # NOTE json only reads numerical measurements, strings and booleans are ignored.
@@ -180,4 +183,3 @@ sensu.metric.net.server0.eth0.rx_dropped 0 1444234982
 The templates configuration will be used to parse the graphite metrics to support influxdb/opentsdb tagging store engines.
 
 More detail information about templates, please refer to [The graphite Input](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/blob/master/services/graphite/README.md)
-
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/exec/exec.go b/plugins/inputs/exec/exec.go
index c1b2092e84269..1f5f12203be1a 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/exec/exec.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/exec/exec.go
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ import (
 	"bytes"
 	"fmt"
 	"os/exec"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"syscall"
 	"time"
@@ -19,7 +21,11 @@ import (
 
 const sampleConfig = `
   ## Commands array
-  commands = ["/tmp/test.sh", "/usr/bin/mycollector --foo=bar"]
+  commands = [
+    "/tmp/test.sh",
+    "/usr/bin/mycollector --foo=bar",
+    "/tmp/collect_*.sh"
+  ]
 
   ## Timeout for each command to complete.
   timeout = "5s"
@@ -150,10 +156,36 @@ func (e *Exec) Gather(acc telegraf.Accumulator) error {
 		e.Command = ""
 	}
 
-	e.errChan = make(chan error, len(e.Commands))
+	commands := make([]string, 0, len(e.Commands))
+	for _, pattern := range e.Commands {
+		cmdAndArgs := strings.SplitN(pattern, " ", 2)
+		if len(cmdAndArgs) == 0 {
+			continue
+		}
+
+		matches, err := filepath.Glob(cmdAndArgs[0])
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+
+		if len(matches) == 0 {
+			// There were no matches with the glob pattern, so let's assume
+			// that the command is in PATH and just run it as it is
+			commands = append(commands, pattern)
+		} else {
+			// There were matches, so we'll append each match together with
+			// the arguments to the commands slice
+			for _, match := range matches {
+				commands = append(
+					commands, strings.Join([]string{match, cmdAndArgs[1]}, " "))
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+	e.errChan = make(chan error, len(commands))
 
-	e.wg.Add(len(e.Commands))
-	for _, command := range e.Commands {
+	e.wg.Add(len(commands))
+	for _, command := range commands {
 		go e.ProcessCommand(command, acc)
 	}
 	e.wg.Wait()
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/exec/exec_test.go b/plugins/inputs/exec/exec_test.go
index 9c75857cfbbbe..cd9c9eaef0672 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/exec/exec_test.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/exec/exec_test.go
@@ -169,3 +169,51 @@ func TestLineProtocolParseMultiple(t *testing.T) {
 		acc.AssertContainsTaggedFields(t, "cpu", fields, tags)
 	}
 }
+
+func TestExecCommandWithGlob(t *testing.T) {
+	parser, _ := parsers.NewValueParser("metric", "string", nil)
+	e := NewExec()
+	e.Commands = []string{"/bin/ech* metric_value"}
+	e.SetParser(parser)
+
+	var acc testutil.Accumulator
+	err := e.Gather(&acc)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	fields := map[string]interface{}{
+		"value": "metric_value",
+	}
+	acc.AssertContainsFields(t, "metric", fields)
+}
+
+func TestExecCommandWithoutGlob(t *testing.T) {
+	parser, _ := parsers.NewValueParser("metric", "string", nil)
+	e := NewExec()
+	e.Commands = []string{"/bin/echo metric_value"}
+	e.SetParser(parser)
+
+	var acc testutil.Accumulator
+	err := e.Gather(&acc)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	fields := map[string]interface{}{
+		"value": "metric_value",
+	}
+	acc.AssertContainsFields(t, "metric", fields)
+}
+
+func TestExecCommandWithoutGlobAndPath(t *testing.T) {
+	parser, _ := parsers.NewValueParser("metric", "string", nil)
+	e := NewExec()
+	e.Commands = []string{"echo metric_value"}
+	e.SetParser(parser)
+
+	var acc testutil.Accumulator
+	err := e.Gather(&acc)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	fields := map[string]interface{}{
+		"value": "metric_value",
+	}
+	acc.AssertContainsFields(t, "metric", fields)
+}