diff --git a/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/CompilerCommand.scala b/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/CompilerCommand.scala
index 95e86a6e7..15040b4e3 100644
--- a/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/CompilerCommand.scala
+++ b/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/CompilerCommand.scala
@@ -107,7 +107,15 @@ class CompilerCommand(arguments: List[String], val settings: Settings,
     var args = arguments
 
     while (!args.isEmpty && ok) {
-      if (args.head startsWith "-") {
+      if (args.head startsWith "@") {
+        try {
+          args = util.ArgumentsExpander.expandArg(args.head) ::: args.tail
+        } catch {
+          case ex: java.io.IOException =>
+            error(ex.getMessage())
+            ok = false
+        }
+      } else if (args.head startsWith "-") {
 	if (interactive) {
           error("no options can be given in interactive mode")
           ok = false
diff --git a/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/Settings.scala b/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/Settings.scala
index 9d6859aba..368b2098a 100644
--- a/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/Settings.scala
+++ b/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/Settings.scala
@@ -98,7 +98,8 @@ class Settings(error: String => Unit) {
   val version       = BooleanSetting    ("-version", "Print product version and exit").hideToIDE
   val help          = BooleanSetting    ("-help", "Print a synopsis of standard options").hideToIDE
   val Xhelp         = BooleanSetting    ("-X", "Print a synopsis of advanced options").hideToIDE
-  
+  val argfiles      = BooleanSetting    ("@<file>", "A text file containing compiler arguments (options and source files)") // only for the help message
+
   val assemname     = StringSetting     ("-Xassem", "file", "Name of the output assembly (only relevant with -target:msil)", "").dependsOn(target, "msil").hideToIDE
   val assemrefs     = StringSetting     ("-Xassem-path", "path", "List of assemblies referenced by the program (only relevant with -target:msil)", ".").dependsOn(target, "msil").hideToIDE
   val Xchecknull    = BooleanSetting    ("-Xcheck-null", "Emit warning on selection of nullable reference")
diff --git a/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/util/ArgumentsExpander.scala b/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/util/ArgumentsExpander.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..68aa3479d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/util/ArgumentsExpander.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+package scala.tools.nsc.util
+
+import java.io.{FileReader, BufferedReader, StreamTokenizer, FileNotFoundException}
+import scala.tools.nsc.io.AbstractFile
+import scala.collection.mutable.ListBuffer
+
+/**
+ * Expands all arguments starting with @ to the contents of the
+ * file named like each argument.
+ */
+object ArgumentsExpander {
+
+  def expandArg(arg: String): List[String] =
+    expandFromFile(arg.substring(1))
+
+  /*
+   * Extracts all the arguments in a specified file.
+   * Throws FileNotFoundException if the file does not exist.
+   */
+  private def expandFromFile(fileName: String): List[String]  = {
+    val f = AbstractFile.getFile(fileName)
+    if (f eq null) throw new FileNotFoundException(
+      "argument file "+ fileName +" could not be found")
+
+    val in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(f.file))
+
+    val tokenizer = new StreamTokenizer( in )
+    tokenizer.resetSyntax
+    tokenizer.wordChars(' ', 255)
+    tokenizer.whitespaceChars(0, ' ')
+    tokenizer.commentChar('#')
+    tokenizer.quoteChar('"')
+    tokenizer.quoteChar('\'')
+
+    val ts = new ListBuffer[String]
+    while (tokenizer.nextToken() != StreamTokenizer.TT_EOF) {
+      ts += tokenizer.sval
+    }
+    in.close()
+    ts.toList
+  }
+}