diff -r 170fad802bb9 Doc/library/os.rst
--- a/Doc/library/os.rst	Fri May 27 02:03:06 2011 +0200
+++ b/Doc/library/os.rst	Fri May 27 16:01:41 2011 +0200
@@ -1019,6 +1019,17 @@
    Availability: Unix, Windows.
 
 
+.. function:: pipe2(flags=0)
+
+   Create a pipe with *flags* set atomically.
+   *flags* is optional and can be constructed by ORing together zero or more of
+   these values: :data:`O_NONBLOCK`, :data:`O_CLOEXEC`.
+   Return a pair of file descriptors ``(r, w)`` usable for reading and writing,
+   respectively.
+
+   Availability: some flavors of Unix.
+
+
 .. function:: posix_fallocate(fd, offset, len)
 
    Ensures that enough disk space is allocated for the file specified by *fd*
diff -r 170fad802bb9 Lib/test/test_posix.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_posix.py	Fri May 27 02:03:06 2011 +0200
+++ b/Lib/test/test_posix.py	Fri May 27 16:01:41 2011 +0200
@@ -477,6 +477,31 @@
             reader, writer = posix.pipe()
             os.close(reader)
             os.close(writer)
+            
+    @unittest.skipUnless(hasattr(os, 'pipe2'), "test needs os.pipe2()")
+    def test_pipe2(self):
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError, os.pipe2, 'DEADBEEF')
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError, os.pipe2, (0, 0))
+
+        # try calling without flag, like os.pipe()
+        r, w = os.pipe2()
+        os.close(r)
+        os.close(w)
+
+        # test flags
+        r, w = os.pipe2(os.O_CLOEXEC|os.O_NONBLOCK)
+        self.addCleanup(os.close, r)
+        self.addCleanup(os.close, w)
+        self.assertTrue(fcntl.fcntl(r, fcntl.F_GETFD) & fcntl.FD_CLOEXEC)
+        self.assertTrue(fcntl.fcntl(w, fcntl.F_GETFD) & fcntl.FD_CLOEXEC)
+        start = time.time()
+        # try reading from an empty pipe: this should fail, not block
+        self.assertRaises(OSError, os.read, r, 1)
+        # try a write big enough to fill-up the pipe (64K on most kernels): this
+        # should perform a partial write, not block
+        os.write(w, b'x' * 100000)
+        # check that this completed quickly
+        self.assertTrue((time.time() - start) < 1.0, "Test took too long for O_NONBLOCK.")
 
     def test_utime(self):
         if hasattr(posix, 'utime'):
diff -r 170fad802bb9 Modules/posixmodule.c
--- a/Modules/posixmodule.c	Fri May 27 02:03:06 2011 +0200
+++ b/Modules/posixmodule.c	Fri May 27 16:01:41 2011 +0200
@@ -6547,6 +6547,31 @@
 }
 #endif  /* HAVE_PIPE */
 
+#ifdef HAVE_PIPE2
+PyDoc_STRVAR(posix_pipe2__doc__,
+"pipe2(flags=0) -> (read_end, write_end)\n\n\
+Create a pipe with flags set atomically.\
+flags is optional and can be constructed by ORing together zero or more\n\
+of these values: O_NONBLOCK, O_CLOEXEC.\n\
+");
+
+static PyObject *
+posix_pipe2(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
+{
+    int flags = 0;
+    int fds[2];
+    int res;
+
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "|i:pipe2", &flags))
+        return NULL;
+
+    res = pipe2(fds, flags);
+    if (res != 0)
+        return posix_error();
+    return Py_BuildValue("(ii)", fds[0], fds[1]);
+}
+#endif /* HAVE_PIPE2 */
+
 #ifdef HAVE_WRITEV
 PyDoc_STRVAR(posix_writev__doc__,
 "writev(fd, buffers) -> byteswritten\n\n\
@@ -9441,6 +9466,9 @@
 #ifdef HAVE_PIPE
     {"pipe",            posix_pipe, METH_NOARGS, posix_pipe__doc__},
 #endif
+#ifdef HAVE_PIPE2
+    {"pipe2",           posix_pipe2, METH_VARARGS, posix_pipe2__doc__},
+#endif
 #ifdef HAVE_MKFIFO
     {"mkfifo",          posix_mkfifo, METH_VARARGS, posix_mkfifo__doc__},
 #endif