diff --git a/Make.inc b/Make.inc
index 24108b1115045..75311f1c55a71 100644
--- a/Make.inc
+++ b/Make.inc
@@ -379,30 +379,37 @@ ifeq ($(BUILD_OS), WINNT)
 define mingw_to_dos
 $(subst /,\\,$(subst $(shell $(2) pwd),$(shell $(2) cmd //C cd),$(abspath $(1))))
 endef
+endif
+
 define symlink_target
 CLEAN_TARGETS += clean-$(2)/$(1)
 clean-$$(abspath $(2)/$(1)): 
+ifeq ($(BUILD_OS), WINNT)
 	@-cmd //C rmdir $$(call mingw_to_dos,$(2)/$(1),cd $(2) &&)
-$$(subst $$(abspath $(JULIAHOME))/,,$$(abspath $(2)/$(1))): $$(abspath $(2)/$(1))
-$$(abspath $(2)/$(1)): | $$(abspath $(2))
-	@cmd //C mklink //J $$(call mingw_to_dos,$(2)/$(1),cd $(2) &&) $$(call mingw_to_dos,$(1),) 
-endef
-spawn = $(1)
 else
-define symlink_target
-CLEAN_TARGETS += clean-$(2)/$(1)
-clean-$$(abspath $(2)/$(1)): 
 	@-rm $$(abspath $(2)/$(1))
+endif
 $$(subst $$(abspath $(JULIAHOME))/,,$$(abspath $(2)/$(1))): $$(abspath $(2)/$(1))
 $$(abspath $(2)/$(1)): | $$(abspath $(2))
-	@ln -sf $$(abspath $(1)) $$@ 
+ifeq ($(BUILD_OS), WINNT)
+	@cmd //C mklink //J $$(call mingw_to_dos,$(2)/$(1),cd $(2) &&) $$(call mingw_to_dos,$(1),)
+else ifdef JULIA_VAGRANT_BUILD
+	@cp -R $$(abspath $(1)) $$@
+else
+	@ln -sf $$(abspath $(1)) $$@
+endif
 endef
-ifeq ($(OS),WINNT)
+
+ifeq ($(BUILD_OS), WINNT)
+spawn = $(1)
+else
+ifeq ($(OS), WINNT)
 spawn = wine cmd /c "set PATH=$(WINE_PATH) && $$(exec winepath -w '$(1)')"
 else
 spawn = $(1)
 endif
 endif
+
 exec = $(shell $(call spawn,$(1)))
 
 wine_pathsearch = $(firstword $(wildcard $(addsuffix /$(1),$(shell printf %s\n '$(2)' | xargs -d";" winepath -u | tr '\n' ' '))))
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index fd50539ce1717..b2a2f2040a912 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -36,8 +36,10 @@ julia-debug julia-release:
 	@$(MAKE) $(QUIET_MAKE) -C base
 	@$(MAKE) $(QUIET_MAKE) -C ui $@
 ifneq ($(OS),WINNT)
+ifndef JULIA_VAGRANT_BUILD
 	@ln -sf $(BUILD)/bin/$@-$(DEFAULT_REPL) julia
 endif
+endif
 
 $(BUILD)/share/julia/helpdb.jl: doc/helpdb.jl | $(BUILD)/share/julia
 	@cp $< $@
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 19a6dba48f3a0..3363fc974e775 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -120,6 +120,10 @@ You must use the `gmake` command on FreeBSD instead of `make`.
 
 In order to build Julia on Windows, see [README.windows](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/blob/master/README.windows.md).
 
+### Vagrant
+
+Julia can be developed in an isolated Vagrant environment. See [the Vagrant README](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/blob/master/contrib/vagrant/README.md) for details.
+
 <a name="Required-Build-Tools-External-Libraries"/>
 ## Required Build Tools and External Libraries
 
diff --git a/contrib/vagrant/.gitignore b/contrib/vagrant/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..0ae91c4f2b023
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/vagrant/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/.vagrant
diff --git a/contrib/vagrant/README.md b/contrib/vagrant/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..699b6e0557d71
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/vagrant/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+## Developing Julia with Vagrant
+
+Vagrant is a system that creates lightweight, self-contained development
+environments as virtual machines. This directory contains a Vagrantfile which
+will provision a headless 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin virtual machine
+on VirtualBox for building Julia.
+
+### Requirements
+
+To develop under Vagrant, you will first need to install [Oracle
+VirtualBox](https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads) and
+[Vagrant](http://downloads.vagrantup.com/). Then, from a command line, enter
+the `contrib/vagrant` directory, and enter:
+
+```
+$ vagrant up
+```
+
+A virtual machine will be downloaded if needed, created, and provisioned with
+the dependencies to build Julia. By default, it exposes an SSH server to your
+local machine on port 2222. See the [Vagrant
+documentation](http://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/) for complete details on using
+Vagrant.
+
+### Building Julia
+
+Before attempting to build Julia from the Vagrant machine, you must ensure that
+submodules have been initialized and are up to date. On the host system, from
+the top level Julia repository directory, run:
+
+```
+$ git submodule init
+$ git submodule update
+```
+
+The Julia repository is exposed to the VM using a VirtualBox shared folder as
+`~/julia`. To speed up the build process and handle some limitations of
+VirtualBox shared folders, the contents of the julia-dependencies PPA are
+downloaded during provisioning. To take advantage of these dependencies, use
+the `jlmake` alias in place of `make`.
+
+When the build is complete, you can run
+`~/julia/usr/bin/julia-release-readline` to start Julia.
diff --git a/contrib/vagrant/Vagrantfile b/contrib/vagrant/Vagrantfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..fdffb0a1fcb63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/vagrant/Vagrantfile
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+# -*- mode: ruby -*-
+# vi: set ft=ruby :
+
+$script = <<SCRIPT
+rm /home/vagrant/postinstall.sh
+
+cat - > /home/vagrant/.bash_aliases <<"EOF"
+export JULIA_VAGRANT_BUILD=1
+BUILDOPTS="LLVM_CONFIG=llvm-config-3.2"
+for lib in LLVM ZLIB SUITESPARSE ARPACK BLAS FFTW LAPACK GMP MPFR PCRE LIBUNWIND READLINE GRISU OPENLIBM RMATH LIBUV; do
+    export BUILDOPTS="$BUILDOPTS USE_SYSTEM_$lib=1"
+done
+
+alias jlmake="make $BUILDOPTS"
+EOF
+
+apt-get update -qq -y
+apt-get install python-software-properties -y
+add-apt-repository ppa:staticfloat/julia-deps -y
+apt-get update -qq -y
+apt-get install g++ git make patchelf gfortran llvm-3.2-dev libsuitesparse-dev libncurses5-dev libopenblas-dev liblapack-dev libarpack2-dev libfftw3-dev libgmp-dev libpcre3-dev libunwind7-dev libreadline-dev libdouble-conversion-dev libopenlibm-dev librmath-dev libuv-julia-dev libmpfr-dev -y
+SCRIPT
+
+Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
+  # All Vagrant configuration is done here. The most common configuration
+  # options are documented and commented below. For a complete reference,
+  # please see the online documentation at vagrantup.com.
+
+  # Every Vagrant virtual environment requires a box to build off of.
+  config.vm.box = "precise64"
+
+  # The url from where the 'config.vm.box' box will be fetched if it
+  # doesn't already exist on the user's system.
+  config.vm.box_url = "http://files.vagrantup.com/precise64.box"
+
+  # Share an additional folder to the guest VM. The first argument is
+  # the path on the host to the actual folder. The second argument is
+  # the path on the guest to mount the folder. And the optional third
+  # argument is a set of non-required options.
+  config.vm.synced_folder "../..", "/home/vagrant/julia"
+
+  # Provider-specific configuration so you can fine-tune various
+  # backing providers for Vagrant. These expose provider-specific options.
+  # Example for VirtualBox:
+  #
+  # config.vm.provider :virtualbox do |vb|
+  #   # Don't boot with headless mode
+  #   vb.gui = true
+  #
+  #   # Use VBoxManage to customize the VM. For example to change memory:
+  #   vb.customize ["modifyvm", :id, "--memory", "1024"]
+  # end
+  #
+  # View the documentation for the provider you're using for more
+  # information on available options.
+
+  config.vm.provision :shell, :inline => $script
+end