diff -ur ../trunk/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst ./Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst
--- ../trunk/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst	2009-03-28 11:07:49.000000000 +0100
+++ ./Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst	2009-03-28 11:45:48.000000000 +0100
@@ -1121,9 +1121,10 @@
    ``current_process().authkey``.  Otherwise *authkey* is used and it
    must be a string.
 
-   .. method:: start()
+   .. method:: start([initializer[, initargs]])
 
-      Start a subprocess to start the manager.
+      Start a subprocess to start the manager.  If *initializer* is not ``None``
+      then the subprocess will call ``initializer(*initargs)`` when it starts.
 
    .. method:: serve_forever()
 
diff -ur ../trunk/Lib/multiprocessing/managers.py ./Lib/multiprocessing/managers.py
--- ../trunk/Lib/multiprocessing/managers.py	2009-03-28 11:07:50.000000000 +0100
+++ ./Lib/multiprocessing/managers.py	2009-03-28 11:51:31.000000000 +0100
@@ -475,7 +475,7 @@
         dispatch(conn, None, 'dummy')
         self._state.value = State.STARTED
 
-    def start(self):
+    def start(self, initializer=None, initargs=()):
         '''
         Spawn a server process for this manager object
         '''
@@ -488,7 +488,7 @@
         self._process = Process(
             target=type(self)._run_server,
             args=(self._registry, self._address, self._authkey,
-                  self._serializer, writer),
+                  self._serializer, writer, initializer, initargs),
             )
         ident = ':'.join(str(i) for i in self._process._identity)
         self._process.name = type(self).__name__  + '-' + ident
@@ -509,10 +509,14 @@
             )
 
     @classmethod
-    def _run_server(cls, registry, address, authkey, serializer, writer):
+    def _run_server(cls, registry, address, authkey, serializer, writer,
+                    initializer=None, initargs=()):
         '''
         Create a server, report its address and run it
         '''
+        if initializer is not None:
+            initializer(*initargs)
+
         # create server
         server = cls._Server(registry, address, authkey, serializer)