Index: Python/sysmodule.c
===================================================================
--- Python/sysmodule.c	(revision 61912)
+++ Python/sysmodule.c	(working copy)
@@ -988,6 +988,7 @@
 Static objects:\n\
 \n\
 maxint -- the largest supported integer (the smallest is -maxint-1)\n\
+maxsize -- the largest supported length of containers.\n\
 maxunicode -- the largest supported character\n\
 builtin_module_names -- tuple of module names built into this interpreter\n\
 version -- the version of this interpreter as a string\n\
@@ -1339,6 +1340,8 @@
 			    PyString_FromString(Py_GetPrefix()));
 	SET_SYS_FROM_STRING("exec_prefix",
 		   	    PyString_FromString(Py_GetExecPrefix()));
+	SET_SYS_FROM_STRING("maxsize",
+			    PyLong_FromSsize_t(PY_SSIZE_T_MAX));
 	SET_SYS_FROM_STRING("maxint",
 			    PyInt_FromLong(PyInt_GetMax()));
 	SET_SYS_FROM_STRING("py3kwarning",
Index: Misc/NEWS
===================================================================
--- Misc/NEWS	(revision 61912)
+++ Misc/NEWS	(working copy)
@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@
 - Issue 1745.  Backport print function with:
    from __future__ import print_function
 
+- Issue 2488: Backport sys.maxsize
+
 - Issue 2332: add new attribute names for instance method objects.
   The two changes are:  im_self -> __self__ and im_func -> __func__