diff --git a/src/Makefile b/src/Makefile
index a45002de..6918e927 100644
--- a/src/Makefile
+++ b/src/Makefile
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ QUIET_CC = @printf '    %b %b\n' $(CCCOLOR)CC$(ENDCOLOR) $(SRCCOLOR)$@$(ENDCOLOR
 QUIET_LINK = @printf '    %b %b\n' $(LINKCOLOR)LINK$(ENDCOLOR) $(BINCOLOR)$@$(ENDCOLOR);
 endif
 
-OBJ = adlist.o ae.o anet.o dict.o redis.o sds.o zmalloc.o lzf_c.o lzf_d.o pqsort.o zipmap.o sha1.o ziplist.o release.o networking.o util.o object.o db.o replication.o rdb.o t_string.o t_list.o t_set.o t_zset.o t_hash.o config.o aof.o pubsub.o multi.o debug.o sort.o intset.o syncio.o cluster.o crc16.o endian.o slowlog.o scripting.o
+OBJ = adlist.o ae.o anet.o dict.o redis.o sds.o zmalloc.o lzf_c.o lzf_d.o pqsort.o zipmap.o sha1.o ziplist.o release.o networking.o util.o object.o db.o replication.o rdb.o t_string.o t_list.o t_set.o t_zset.o t_hash.o config.o aof.o pubsub.o multi.o debug.o sort.o intset.o syncio.o cluster.o crc16.o endian.o slowlog.o scripting.o bio.o
 BENCHOBJ = ae.o anet.o redis-benchmark.o sds.o adlist.o zmalloc.o
 CLIOBJ = anet.o sds.o adlist.o redis-cli.o zmalloc.o release.o
 CHECKDUMPOBJ = redis-check-dump.o lzf_c.o lzf_d.o
diff --git a/src/bio.c b/src/bio.c
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fc85afd8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/bio.c
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+/* Background I/O service for Redis.
+ *
+ * This file implements operations that we need to perform in the background.
+ * Currently there is only a single operation, that is a background close(2)
+ * system call. This is needed as when the process is the last owner of a
+ * reference to a file closing it means unlinking it, and the deletion of the
+ * file is slow, blocking the server.
+ *
+ * In the future we'll either continue implementing new things we need or
+ * we'll switch to libeio. However there are probably long term uses for this
+ * file as we may want to put here Redis specific background tasks (for instance
+ * it is not impossible that we'll need a non blocking FLUSHDB/FLUSHALL
+ * implementation).
+ *
+ * DESIGN
+ * ------
+ *
+ * The design is trivial, we have a structure representing a job to perform
+ * and a single thread performing all the I/O operations in the queue.
+ * Currently there is no way for the creator of the job to be notified about
+ * the completion of the operation, this will only be added when/if needed.
+ */
+
+#include "redis.h"
+#include "bio.h"
+
+static pthread_mutex_t bio_mutex;
+static pthread_cond_t bio_condvar;
+list *bio_jobs;
+
+/* This structure represents a background Job. It is only used locally to this
+ * file as the API deos not expose the internals at all. */
+struct bio_job {
+    int type;       /* Job type, for instance BIO_JOB_CLOSE */
+    void *data;     /* Job specific arguments pointer. */
+}
+
+void *bioProcessBackgroundJobs(void *arg);
+
+/* Initialize the background system, spawning the thread. */
+void bioInit(void) {
+    pthread_attr_t attr;
+    pthread_t thread;
+    size_t stacksize;
+
+    pthread_mutex_init(bio_mutex,NULL);
+    pthread_cond_init(bio_condvar,NULL);
+    bio_jobs = listCreate();
+
+    /* Set the stack size as by default it may be small in some system */
+    pthread_attr_init(&attr);
+    pthread_attr_getstacksize(&attr);
+    if (!stacksize) stacksize = 1; /* The world is full of Solaris Fixes */
+    while (stacksize < REDIS_THREAD_STACK_SIZE) stacksize *= 2;
+    pthread_attr_setstacksize(&attr, stacksize);
+
+    /* Ready to spawn our thread */
+    if (pthread_create(&thread,&attr,bioProcessBackgroundJobs,NULL) != 0) {
+        redisLog(REDIS_WARNING,"Fatal: Can't initialize Background Jobs.");
+        exit(1);
+    }
+}
+
+void bioCreateBackgroundJob(int type, void *data) {
+    struct bio_job *job = zmalloc(sizeof(*job));
+
+    job->type = type;
+    job->data = data;
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&bio_mutex);
+    listAddNodeTail(bio_jobs,job);
+    pthread_mutex_unlock(&bio_mutex);
+}
+
+void *bioProcessBackgroundJobs(void *arg) {
+    struct bio_job *job;
+
+    pthread_detach(pthread_self());
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&bio_mutex);
+    while(1) {
+        listNode *ln;
+
+        /* The loop always starts with the lock hold. */
+        if (listLength(server.io_newjobs) == 0) {
+            pthread_cond_wait(&bio_condvar,&bio_mutex);
+            continue;
+        }
+        /* Pop the job from the queue. */
+        ln = listFirst(bio_jobs);
+        job = ln->value;
+        listDelNode(bio_jobs,ln);
+        /* It is now possible to unlock the background system as we know have
+         * a stand alone job structure to process.*/
+        pthread_mutex_unlock(&bio_mutex);
+
+        /* Process the job accordingly to its type. */
+        if (job->type == REDIS_BIO_CLOSE_FILE) {
+            close((long)job->data);
+        } else {
+            redisPanic("Wrong job type in bioProcessBackgroundJobs().");
+        }
+        zfree(job);
+
+        /* Lock again before reiterating the loop, if there are no longer
+         * jobs to process we'll block again in pthread_cond_wait(). */
+        pthread_mutex_lock(&bio_mutex);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/bio.h b/src/bio.h
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3721fa2b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/bio.h
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+/* Exported API */
+void bioInit(void);
+void bioCreateBackgroundJob(int type, void *data);
+
+/* Background job opcodes */
+#define REDIS_BIO_CLOSE_FILE    1