Index: Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst
===================================================================
--- Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst	(revision 83065)
+++ Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst	(working copy)
@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@
 :class:`Process` and exceptions
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-.. class:: Process([group[, target[, name[, args[, kwargs]]]]])
+.. class:: Process([group[, target[, name[, args[, kwargs[, daemon]]]]]])
 
    Process objects represent activity that is run in a separate process. The
    :class:`Process` class has equivalents of all the methods of
@@ -310,9 +310,13 @@
    :sub:`1`,N\ :sub:`2`,...,N\ :sub:`k` is a sequence of integers whose length
    is determined by the *generation* of the process.  *args* is the argument
    tuple for the target invocation.  *kwargs* is a dictionary of keyword
-   arguments for the target invocation.  By default, no arguments are passed to
-   *target*.
+   arguments for the target invocation. *daemon* sets the process
+   :attr:`daemon` flag to ``True`` or ``False``. If ``None`` is explicitly
+   provided this flag will be inherited from the creating process. 
+   The default value for *daemon* is False.
 
+   By default, no arguments are passed to *target*.
+
    If a subclass overrides the constructor, it must make sure it invokes the
    base class constructor (:meth:`Process.__init__`) before doing anything else
    to the process.
Index: Lib/multiprocessing/process.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/multiprocessing/process.py	(revision 83065)
+++ Lib/multiprocessing/process.py	(working copy)
@@ -59,18 +59,23 @@
 
 class Process(object):
     '''
-    Process objects represent activity that is run in a separate process
+    Process objects represent activity that is run in a separate process.
 
-    The class is analagous to `threading.Thread`
+    The class is analagous to ``threading.Thread``.
     '''
     _Popen = None
 
-    def __init__(self, group=None, target=None, name=None, args=(), kwargs={}):
+    def __init__(self, group=None, target=None, name=None, args=(), kwargs={},
+                 daemon=False):
         assert group is None, 'group argument must be None for now'
         count = next(_current_process._counter)
         self._identity = _current_process._identity + (count,)
         self._authkey = _current_process._authkey
         self._daemonic = _current_process._daemonic
+        if daemon is not None:
+            self._daemonic = daemon
+        else:
+            self._daemonic = _current_process._daemonic
         self._tempdir = _current_process._tempdir
         self._parent_pid = os.getpid()
         self._popen = None
Index: Lib/test/test_multiprocessing.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_multiprocessing.py	(revision 83065)
+++ Lib/test/test_multiprocessing.py	(working copy)
@@ -151,6 +151,21 @@
         self.assertEqual(current.ident, os.getpid())
         self.assertEqual(current.exitcode, None)
 
+    def test_daemon_keyword_argument(self):
+        if self.TYPE == "threads":
+            return
+
+        proc0 = self.Process(target=self._test)
+        self.assertFalse(proc0.daemon)
+        proc1 = self.Process(target=self._test, daemon=True)
+        self.assertTrue(proc1.daemon)
+        proc2 = self.Process(target=self._test, daemon=False)
+        self.assertFalse(proc2.daemon)
+
+        # By default uses the current process's daemon flag.
+        proc3 = self.Process(target=self._test)
+        self.assertEquals(proc3.daemon, self.current_process().daemon)
+
     def _test(self, q, *args, **kwds):
         current = self.current_process()
         q.put(args)