diff --git a/base/error_string.cc b/base/error_string.cc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6cb02c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/base/error_string.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+#include "base/error_string.h"
+
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <stdexcept>
+
+#include <string.h>
+
+using namespace std;
+
+//----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+#ifdef STRERROR_R_CHAR_P
+
+string base::error_string(int err)
+{
+	char *ptr;
+	char buffer[128];
+
+	ptr = strerror_r(errno, buffer, sizeof(buffer));
+	return string(ptr);
+}
+
+#else
+
+string base::error_string(int err)
+{
+	int r;
+	char buffer[128];
+
+	r = strerror_r(errno, buffer, sizeof(buffer));
+	if (r)
+		throw runtime_error("strerror_r failed");
+
+	return string(buffer);
+}
+
+#endif
+
+//----------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/base/error_string.h b/base/error_string.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd7549a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/base/error_string.h
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#ifndef BASE_ERROR_STRING_H
+#define BASE_ERROR_STRING_H
+
+#include <string>
+
+//----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+namespace base {
+	// There are a couple of version of strerror_r kicking around, so
+	// we wrap it.
+	std::string error_string(int err);
+}
+
+//----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+#endif