diff --git a/src/pkg/http/Makefile b/src/pkg/http/Makefile
index df4ab95101b..af4fbc12e02 100644
--- a/src/pkg/http/Makefile
+++ b/src/pkg/http/Makefile
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ GOFILES=\
 	client.go\
 	cookie.go\
 	dump.go\
+	filetransport.go\
 	fs.go\
 	header.go\
 	lex.go\
diff --git a/src/pkg/http/filetransport.go b/src/pkg/http/filetransport.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..78f3aa2d69d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/pkg/http/filetransport.go
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+// Copyright 2011 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package http
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"os"
+)
+
+// fileTransport implements RoundTripper for the 'file' protocol.
+type fileTransport struct {
+	fh fileHandler
+}
+
+// NewFileTransport returns a new RoundTripper, serving the provided
+// FileSystem. The returned RoundTripper ignores the URL host in its
+// incoming requests, as well as most other properties of the
+// request.
+//
+// The typical use case for NewFileTransport is to register the "file"
+// protocol with a Transport, as in:
+//
+//   t := &http.Transport{}
+//   t.RegisterProtocol("file", http.NewFileTransport(http.Dir("/")))
+//   c := &http.Client{Transport: t}
+//   res, err := c.Get("file:///etc/passwd")
+//   ...
+func NewFileTransport(fs FileSystem) RoundTripper {
+	return fileTransport{fileHandler{fs}}
+}
+
+func (t fileTransport) RoundTrip(req *Request) (resp *Response, err os.Error) {
+	// We start ServeHTTP in a goroutine, which may take a long
+	// time if the file is large.  The newPopulateResponseWriter
+	// call returns a channel which either ServeHTTP or finish()
+	// sends our *Response on, once the *Response itself has been
+	// populated (even if the body itself is still being
+	// written to the res.Body, a pipe)
+	rw, resc := newPopulateResponseWriter()
+	go func() {
+		t.fh.ServeHTTP(rw, req)
+		rw.finish()
+	}()
+	return <-resc, nil
+}
+
+func newPopulateResponseWriter() (*populateResponse, <-chan *Response) {
+	pr, pw := io.Pipe()
+	rw := &populateResponse{
+		ch: make(chan *Response),
+		pw: pw,
+		res: &Response{
+			Proto:      "HTTP/1.0",
+			ProtoMajor: 1,
+			Header:     make(Header),
+			Close:      true,
+			Body:       pr,
+		},
+	}
+	return rw, rw.ch
+}
+
+// populateResponse is a ResponseWriter that populates the *Response
+// in res, and writes its body to a pipe connected to the response
+// body. Once writes begin or finish() is called, the response is sent
+// on ch.
+type populateResponse struct {
+	res          *Response
+	ch           chan *Response
+	wroteHeader  bool
+	hasContent   bool
+	sentResponse bool
+	pw           *io.PipeWriter
+}
+
+func (pr *populateResponse) finish() {
+	if !pr.wroteHeader {
+		pr.WriteHeader(500)
+	}
+	if !pr.sentResponse {
+		pr.sendResponse()
+	}
+	pr.pw.Close()
+}
+
+func (pr *populateResponse) sendResponse() {
+	if pr.sentResponse {
+		return
+	}
+	pr.sentResponse = true
+
+	if pr.hasContent {
+		pr.res.ContentLength = -1
+	}
+	pr.ch <- pr.res
+}
+
+func (pr *populateResponse) Header() Header {
+	return pr.res.Header
+}
+
+func (pr *populateResponse) WriteHeader(code int) {
+	if pr.wroteHeader {
+		return
+	}
+	pr.wroteHeader = true
+
+	pr.res.StatusCode = code
+	pr.res.Status = fmt.Sprintf("%d %s", code, StatusText(code))
+}
+
+func (pr *populateResponse) Write(p []byte) (n int, err os.Error) {
+	if !pr.wroteHeader {
+		pr.WriteHeader(StatusOK)
+	}
+	pr.hasContent = true
+	if !pr.sentResponse {
+		pr.sendResponse()
+	}
+	return pr.pw.Write(p)
+}
diff --git a/src/pkg/http/filetransport_test.go b/src/pkg/http/filetransport_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..2634243f723
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/pkg/http/filetransport_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+// Copyright 2011 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package http_test
+
+import (
+	"http"
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func checker(t *testing.T) func(string, os.Error) {
+	return func(call string, err os.Error) {
+		if err == nil {
+			return
+		}
+		t.Fatalf("%s: %v", call, err)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestFileTransport(t *testing.T) {
+	check := checker(t)
+
+	dname, err := ioutil.TempDir("", "")
+	check("TempDir", err)
+	fname := filepath.Join(dname, "foo.txt")
+	err = ioutil.WriteFile(fname, []byte("Bar"), 0644)
+	check("WriteFile", err)
+
+	tr := &http.Transport{}
+	tr.RegisterProtocol("file", http.NewFileTransport(http.Dir(dname)))
+	c := &http.Client{Transport: tr}
+
+	fooURLs := []string{"file:///foo.txt", "file://../foo.txt"}
+	for _, urlstr := range fooURLs {
+		res, err := c.Get(urlstr)
+		check("Get "+urlstr, err)
+		if res.StatusCode != 200 {
+			t.Errorf("for %s, StatusCode = %d, want 200", urlstr, res.StatusCode)
+		}
+		if res.ContentLength != -1 {
+			t.Errorf("for %s, ContentLength = %d, want -1", urlstr, res.ContentLength)
+		}
+		if res.Body == nil {
+			t.Fatalf("for %s, nil Body", urlstr)
+		}
+		slurp, err := ioutil.ReadAll(res.Body)
+		check("ReadAll "+urlstr, err)
+		if string(slurp) != "Bar" {
+			t.Errorf("for %s, got content %q, want %q", urlstr, string(slurp), "Bar")
+		}
+	}
+
+	const badURL = "file://../no-exist.txt"
+	res, err := c.Get(badURL)
+	check("Get "+badURL, err)
+	if res.StatusCode != 404 {
+		t.Errorf("for %s, StatusCode = %d, want 404", badURL, res.StatusCode)
+	}
+}