diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 9d00bc78ed..d1ff18f5a6 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -435,6 +435,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "rand 0.5.4 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
  "string 0.1.0",
  "time 0.1.0",
+ "unistd 0.1.0",
  "wchar 0.1.0",
 ]
 
diff --git a/src/stdlib/Cargo.toml b/src/stdlib/Cargo.toml
index 8da566d362..5a79260722 100644
--- a/src/stdlib/Cargo.toml
+++ b/src/stdlib/Cargo.toml
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ platform = { path = "../platform" }
 ctype = { path = "../ctype" }
 errno = { path = "../errno" }
 rand = { version = "0.5.2", default-features = false }
-time = { path = "../time" }
-wchar = { path = "../wchar" }
 string = { path = "../string" }
+time = { path = "../time" }
+unistd = { path = "../unistd" }
+wchar = { path = "../wchar" }
diff --git a/src/stdlib/src/lib.rs b/src/stdlib/src/lib.rs
index 1afe2638e9..52a1bab517 100644
--- a/src/stdlib/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/stdlib/src/lib.rs
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ extern crate platform;
 extern crate rand;
 extern crate string;
 extern crate time;
+extern crate unistd;
 extern crate wchar;
 
 use core::{ptr, str};
@@ -783,8 +784,37 @@ pub unsafe extern "C" fn strtol(s: *const c_char, endptr: *mut *mut c_char, base
 }
 
 #[no_mangle]
-pub extern "C" fn system(command: *const c_char) -> c_int {
-    unimplemented!();
+pub unsafe extern "C" fn system(command: *const c_char) -> c_int {
+    let child_pid = unistd::fork();
+    if child_pid == 0 {
+        let command_nonnull = if command.is_null() {
+            "exit 0\0".as_ptr()
+        } else {
+            command as *const u8
+        };
+
+        let shell = "/bin/sh\0".as_ptr();
+
+        let args = [
+            "sh\0".as_ptr(),
+            "-c\0".as_ptr(),
+            command_nonnull,
+            ptr::null()
+        ];
+
+        unistd::execv(shell as *const c_char, args.as_ptr() as *const *mut c_char);
+
+        exit(127);
+
+        unreachable!();
+    } else {
+        let mut wstatus = 0;
+        if platform::waitpid(child_pid, &mut wstatus, 0) < 0 {
+            return -1;
+        }
+
+        wstatus
+    }
 }
 
 #[no_mangle]
diff --git a/tests/.gitignore b/tests/.gitignore
index afb0d2f8cf..3fb46de657 100644
--- a/tests/.gitignore
+++ b/tests/.gitignore
@@ -1,65 +1,66 @@
+# Automatically generated by 'make ignore'
 /*.out
 /gen/
-/alloc
-/assert
-/args
-/atof
-/atoi
-/brk
-/chdir
-/create
-/ctype
-/dup
-/error
-/exec
-/fchdir
-/fcntl
-/fsync
-/ftruncate
-/getc_unget
-/gethostname
-/getid
-/link
-/locale
-/math
-/mem
-/pipe
-/printf
-/rmdir
-/rename
-/scanf
-/setid
-/setjmp
-/sleep
-/sprintf
-/strings
-/stdlib/a64l
-/stdlib/bsearch
-/stdlib/mktemp
-/stdlib/rand
-/stdlib/strtol
-/stdlib/strtoul
-/stdlib/a64l
-/stdio/fwrite
-/stdio/all
-/stdio/freopen
-/string/strchr
-/string/strcspn
-/string/strncmp
-/string/strpbrk
-/string/strrchr
-/string/strspn
-/string/strstr
-/string/strtok
-/string/strtok_r
-/unistd/getopt
-/unlink
-/waitpid
-/wchar/mbrtowc
-/wchar/mbsrtowcs
-/wchar/putwchar
-/wchar/wcrtomb
-/write
-/time
-/gmtime
-/asctime
+assert
+atof
+atoi
+brk
+args
+create
+ctype
+dup
+error
+exec
+fchdir
+fcntl
+fsync
+ftruncate
+getc_unget
+locale
+math
+mem
+pipe
+printf
+rename
+rmdir
+scanf
+setjmp
+sleep
+sprintf
+strings
+stdio/fwrite
+stdio/all
+stdio/freopen
+stdlib/strtol
+stdlib/strtoul
+stdlib/a64l
+stdlib/rand
+string/strncmp
+string/strcspn
+string/strchr
+string/strrchr
+string/strspn
+string/strstr
+string/strpbrk
+string/strtok
+string/strtok_r
+system
+unistd/getopt
+waitpid
+wchar/mbrtowc
+wchar/mbsrtowcs
+wchar/putwchar
+wchar/wcrtomb
+write
+time
+gmtime
+asctime
+alloc
+chdir
+gethostname
+getid
+link
+setid
+stdlib/bsearch
+stdlib/mktemp
+unlink
diff --git a/tests/Makefile b/tests/Makefile
index 0957b27f2c..3584543252 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile
+++ b/tests/Makefile
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ EXPECT_BINS=\
 	string/strpbrk \
 	string/strtok \
 	string/strtok_r \
+	system \
 	unistd/getopt \
 	waitpid \
 	wchar/mbrtowc \
@@ -72,6 +73,15 @@ all: $(BINS)
 clean:
 	rm -f $(BINS) *.out
 
+ignore: $(BINS)
+	echo "# Automatically generated by 'make ignore'" > .gitignore
+	echo "/*.out" >> .gitignore
+	echo "/gen/" >> .gitignore
+	for bin in $^; \
+	do \
+		echo "$${bin}" >> .gitignore; \
+	done
+
 run: $(BINS)
 	for bin in $^; \
 	do \
diff --git a/tests/expected/system.stderr b/tests/expected/system.stderr
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e69de29bb2
diff --git a/tests/expected/system.stdout b/tests/expected/system.stdout
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a6d3f18a28
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/expected/system.stdout
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+test of system
diff --git a/tests/system.c b/tests/system.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8c4cda187c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/system.c
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#include <stdlib.h>
+
+int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
+    system("echo test of system");
+    return 0;
+}