diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 1e681bca31..118fffae85 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -863,6 +863,7 @@ dnl ----------------------------------------------------------------
 dnl Checks for libraries
 
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS( sigaction sigset )
+AC_CHECK_FUNCS( fmemopen )
 
 dnl HP-UX requires -lV3
 dnl this is not needed on newer versions of HP-UX
diff --git a/include/ldif.h b/include/ldif.h
index 8140c914de..5cb410069b 100644
--- a/include/ldif.h
+++ b/include/ldif.h
@@ -99,6 +99,10 @@ typedef struct LDIFFP {
 LDAP_LDIF_F( LDIFFP * )
 ldif_open LDAP_P(( LDAP_CONST char *file, LDAP_CONST char *mode ));
 
+/* ldif_open equivalent that opens ldif stream in memory rather than from file */
+LDAP_LDIF_F( LDIFFP * )
+ldif_open_mem LDAP_P(( char *ldif, size_t size, LDAP_CONST char *mode ));
+
 LDAP_LDIF_F( void )
 ldif_close LDAP_P(( LDIFFP * ));
 
diff --git a/libraries/libldap/ldif.c b/libraries/libldap/ldif.c
index 1c29619cf3..860a975329 100644
--- a/libraries/libldap/ldif.c
+++ b/libraries/libldap/ldif.c
@@ -740,6 +740,28 @@ ldif_open(
 	return lfp;
 }
 
+LDIFFP *
+ldif_open_mem(
+	char *ldif,
+	size_t size,
+	LDAP_CONST char *mode
+)
+{
+#ifdef HAVE_FMEMOPEN
+	FILE *fp = fmemopen( ldif, size, mode );
+	LDIFFP *lfp = NULL;
+
+	if ( fp ) {
+		lfp = ber_memalloc( sizeof( LDIFFP ));
+		lfp->fp = fp;
+		lfp->prev = NULL;
+	}
+	return lfp;
+#else /* !HAVE_FMEMOPEN */
+	return NULL;
+#endif /* !HAVE_FMEMOPEN */
+}
+
 void
 ldif_close(
 	LDIFFP *lfp