diff --git a/Lib/test/test_univnewlines.py b/Lib/test/test_univnewlines.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e77797af114
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/test/test_univnewlines.py
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+# Tests universal newline support for both reading and parsing files.
+import unittest
+import test_support
+import os
+import sys
+
+DATA_TEMPLATE=[
+    "line1=1", 
+	"line2='this is a very long line designed to go past the magic " + 
+    "hundred character limit that is inside fileobject.c and which " + 
+    "is meant to speed up the common case, but we also want to test " + 
+    "the uncommon case, naturally.'", 
+    "def line3():pass"
+    ]
+DATA_LF = "\n".join(DATA_TEMPLATE) + "\n"
+DATA_CR = "\r".join(DATA_TEMPLATE) + "\r"
+DATA_CRLF = "\r\n".join(DATA_TEMPLATE) + "\r\n"
+# Note that DATA_MIXED also tests the ability to recognize a lone \r
+# before end-of-file.
+DATA_MIXED = "\n".join(DATA_TEMPLATE) + "\r"
+DATA_SPLIT = map(lambda x: x+"\n", DATA_TEMPLATE)
+
+if not hasattr(sys.stdin, 'newlines'):
+    raise test_support.TestSkipped, \
+        "This Python does not have universal newline support"
+
+class TestGenericUnivNewlines(unittest.TestCase):
+    # use a class variable DATA to define the data to write to the file
+    # and a class variable NEWLINE to set the expected newlines value
+    READMODE = 'U'
+    WRITEMODE = 'wb'
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        fp = open(test_support.TESTFN, self.WRITEMODE)
+        fp.write(self.DATA)
+        fp.close()
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        try:
+            os.unlink(test_support.TESTFN)
+        except:
+            pass
+            
+    def test_read(self):
+        fp = open(test_support.TESTFN, self.READMODE)
+        data = fp.read()
+        self.assertEqual(data, DATA_LF)
+        self.assertEqual(`fp.newlines`, `self.NEWLINE`)
+        
+    def test_readlines(self):
+        fp = open(test_support.TESTFN, self.READMODE)
+        data = fp.readlines()
+        self.assertEqual(data, DATA_SPLIT)
+        self.assertEqual(`fp.newlines`, `self.NEWLINE`)
+
+    def test_readline(self):
+        fp = open(test_support.TESTFN, self.READMODE)
+        data = []
+        d = fp.readline()
+        while d:
+            data.append(d)
+            d = fp.readline()
+        self.assertEqual(data, DATA_SPLIT)
+        self.assertEqual(`fp.newlines`, `self.NEWLINE`)
+        
+    def test_seek(self):
+        fp = open(test_support.TESTFN, self.READMODE)
+        fp.readline()
+        pos = fp.tell()
+        data = fp.readlines()
+        self.assertEqual(data, DATA_SPLIT[1:])
+        fp.seek(pos)
+        data = fp.readlines()
+        self.assertEqual(data, DATA_SPLIT[1:])
+        
+    def test_execfile(self):
+        dict = {}
+        execfile(test_support.TESTFN, dict)
+        func = dict['line3']
+        self.assertEqual(func.func_code.co_firstlineno, 3)
+        
+
+class TestNativeNewlines(TestGenericUnivNewlines):
+    NEWLINE=None
+    DATA=DATA_LF
+    READMODE='r'
+    WRITEMODE='w'
+        
+class TestCRNewlines(TestGenericUnivNewlines):
+    NEWLINE='\r'
+    DATA=DATA_CR
+    
+class TestLFNewlines(TestGenericUnivNewlines):
+    NEWLINE='\n'
+    DATA=DATA_LF
+    
+class TestCRLFNewlines(TestGenericUnivNewlines):
+    NEWLINE='\r\n'
+    DATA=DATA_CRLF
+    
+class TestMixedNewlines(TestGenericUnivNewlines):
+    NEWLINE=('\r', '\n')
+    DATA=DATA_MIXED
+    
+
+def test_main():
+    test_support.run_unittest(TestNativeNewlines)
+    test_support.run_unittest(TestCRNewlines)
+    test_support.run_unittest(TestLFNewlines)
+    test_support.run_unittest(TestCRLFNewlines)
+    test_support.run_unittest(TestMixedNewlines)
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    test_main()