diff --git a/base/exports.jl b/base/exports.jl
index 829885b21da87..58044856d3e2a 100644
--- a/base/exports.jl
+++ b/base/exports.jl
@@ -845,6 +845,7 @@ export
     showcompact,
     showerror,
     split,
+    splitlines,
     sprint,
     string,
     strip,
diff --git a/base/precompile.jl b/base/precompile.jl
index 60f0878609a39..9ad8493e3e512 100644
--- a/base/precompile.jl
+++ b/base/precompile.jl
@@ -373,6 +373,7 @@ precompile(Base.splice!, (Array{UInt8, 1}, Base.UnitRange{Int}, Array{UInt8, 1})
 precompile(Base.split, (String, String))
 precompile(Base.split, (String, Regex))
 precompile(Base.split, (String,))
+precompile(Base.splitlines, (String,))
 precompile(Base.srand, (Array{UInt32,1},))
 precompile(Base.start, (Array{Base.LineEdit.TextInterface, 1},))
 precompile(Base.start, (Dict{Any,Any},))
diff --git a/base/strings/util.jl b/base/strings/util.jl
index ddc1c92fe3572..5dadccedcc29b 100644
--- a/base/strings/util.jl
+++ b/base/strings/util.jl
@@ -297,6 +297,17 @@ end
 # a bit oddball, but standard behavior in Perl, Ruby & Python:
 split(str::AbstractString) = split(str, _default_delims; limit=0, keep=false)
 
+"""
+    splitlines(str::AbstractString; chomp = true)
+
+Return an array of strings by splitting the given string at line break characters
+(`'\\n'` or `"\\r\\n"`). When `chomp` is true (as it is by default),
+these trailing newline characters are removed from the
+line before it is returned. When `chomp` is false, they are returned as part of the
+line.
+"""
+splitlines(str::AbstractString; chomp = true) = readlines(IOBuffer(str), chomp = chomp)
+
 rsplit{T<:SubString}(str::T, splitter; limit::Integer=0, keep::Bool=true) = _rsplit(str, splitter, limit, keep, T[])
 
 """
diff --git a/doc/src/stdlib/strings.md b/doc/src/stdlib/strings.md
index be655da87e526..fc79c32a18d5a 100644
--- a/doc/src/stdlib/strings.md
+++ b/doc/src/stdlib/strings.md
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ Base.contains
 Base.reverse(::AbstractString)
 Base.replace
 Base.split
+Base.splitlines
 Base.rsplit
 Base.strip
 Base.lstrip
diff --git a/test/strings/util.jl b/test/strings/util.jl
index 21072a524bf4c..1a55946b6357e 100644
--- a/test/strings/util.jl
+++ b/test/strings/util.jl
@@ -113,6 +113,10 @@ end
 @test isequal(split("abcd", r"d+"), ["abc",""])
 @test isequal(split("abcd", r"[ad]?"), ["","b","c",""])
 
+@test isequal(splitlines("α\nβ\nγ\nδ"), String["α", "β", "γ", "δ"])
+@test isequal(splitlines("α\r\nβ\r\nγ\r\nδ"), String["α", "β", "γ", "δ"])
+@test isequal(splitlines("α\nβ\nγ\nδ", chomp=false), String["α\n","β\n","γ\n","δ"])
+
 # replace
 @test replace("\u2202", '*', '\0') == "\u2202"