diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 170dbcfd2..56bb14e98 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@
                                   Changelog
 
 Daniel S (5 October 2007)
+- Michael Wallner made the CULROPT_COOKIELIST option support a new magic
+  string: "FLUSH". Using that will cause libcurl to flush its cookies to the
+  CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR file.
+
 - The new file docs/libcurl/ABI describes how we view ABI breakages, soname
   bumps and what the version number's significance to all that is.
 
@@ -25,7 +29,6 @@ Yang Tse (3 October 2007)
 - Fixed issue related with the use of ares_timeout() result.
 
 Daniel S (3 October 2007)
-
 - Alexey Pesternikov introduced CURLOPT_OPENSOCKETFUNCTION and
   CURLOPT_OPENSOCKETDATA to set a callback that allows an application to
   replace the socket() call used by libcurl. It basically allows the app to
diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES b/RELEASE-NOTES
index 29748f115..50a4db1db 100644
--- a/RELEASE-NOTES
+++ b/RELEASE-NOTES
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ This release includes the following changes:
  o added CURLOPT_SSH_HOST_PUBLIC_KEY_MD5 and --hostpubmd5
  o renamed CURLE_SSL_PEER_CERTIFICATE to CURLE_PEER_FAILED_VERIFICATION
  o added CURLOPT_OPENSOCKETFUNCTION and CURLOPT_OPENSOCKETDATA
+ o CULROPT_COOKIELIST supports "FLUSH"
 
 This release includes the following bugfixes:
 
@@ -53,6 +54,6 @@ advice from friends like these:
 
  Dan Fandrich, Michal Marek, Günter Knauf, Rob Crittenden, Immanuel Gregoire,
  Mark Davies, Max Katsev, Philip Langdale, Alex Fishman, Johnny Luong,
- Alexey Pesternikov, Yang Tse, Kim Rinnewitz
+ Alexey Pesternikov, Yang Tse, Kim Rinnewitz, Michael Wallner
  
         Thanks! (and sorry if I forgot to mention someone)
diff --git a/docs/libcurl/curl_easy_setopt.3 b/docs/libcurl/curl_easy_setopt.3
index ac460ae09..05895492e 100644
--- a/docs/libcurl/curl_easy_setopt.3
+++ b/docs/libcurl/curl_easy_setopt.3
@@ -810,7 +810,9 @@ format or just regular HTTP-style header (Set-Cookie: ...) format. If cURL
 cookie engine was not enabled it will enable its cookie engine.  Passing a
 magic string \&"ALL" will erase all cookies known by cURL. (Added in 7.14.1)
 Passing the special string \&"SESS" will only erase all session cookies known
-by cURL. (Added in 7.15.4)
+by cURL. (Added in 7.15.4) Passing the special string \&"FLUSH" will write
+all cookies known by cURL to the file specified by \fICURLOPT_COOKIEJAR\fP.
+(Added in 7.17.1)
 .IP CURLOPT_HTTPGET
 Pass a long. If the long is non-zero, this forces the HTTP request to get back
 to GET. usable if a POST, HEAD, PUT or a custom request have been used
diff --git a/lib/url.c b/lib/url.c
index 0571fd651..c74a1d858 100644
--- a/lib/url.c
+++ b/lib/url.c
@@ -165,6 +165,10 @@ static void signalPipeClose(struct curl_llist *pipeline);
 
 static struct SessionHandle* gethandleathead(struct curl_llist *pipeline);
 
+#if !defined(CURL_DISABLE_HTTP) && !defined(CURL_DISABLE_COOKIES)
+static void flush_cookies(struct SessionHandle *data, int cleanup);
+#endif
+
 #define MAX_PIPELINE_LENGTH 5
 
 /*
@@ -269,6 +273,36 @@ CURLcode Curl_dupset(struct SessionHandle * dst, struct SessionHandle * src)
   return r;
 }
 
+#if !defined(CURL_DISABLE_HTTP) && !defined(CURL_DISABLE_COOKIES)
+static void flush_cookies(struct SessionHandle *data, int cleanup)
+{
+  Curl_share_lock(data, CURL_LOCK_DATA_COOKIE, CURL_LOCK_ACCESS_SINGLE);
+  if(data->set.str[STRING_COOKIEJAR]) {
+    if(data->change.cookielist) {
+      /* If there is a list of cookie files to read, do it first so that
+         we have all the told files read before we write the new jar */
+      Curl_cookie_loadfiles(data);
+    }
+
+    /* we have a "destination" for all the cookies to get dumped to */
+    if(Curl_cookie_output(data->cookies, data->set.str[STRING_COOKIEJAR]))
+      infof(data, "WARNING: failed to save cookies in %s\n",
+            data->set.str[STRING_COOKIEJAR]);
+  }
+  else {
+    if(cleanup && data->change.cookielist)
+      /* since nothing is written, we can just free the list of cookie file
+         names */
+      curl_slist_free_all(data->change.cookielist); /* clean up list */
+  }
+
+  if(cleanup && (!data->share || (data->cookies != data->share->cookies))) {
+    Curl_cookie_cleanup(data->cookies);
+  }
+  Curl_share_unlock(data, CURL_LOCK_DATA_COOKIE);
+}
+#endif
+
 /*
  * This is the internal function curl_easy_cleanup() calls. This should
  * cleanup and free all resources associated with this sessionhandle.
@@ -380,30 +414,7 @@ CURLcode Curl_close(struct SessionHandle *data)
   Curl_safefree(data->state.headerbuff);
 
 #if !defined(CURL_DISABLE_HTTP) && !defined(CURL_DISABLE_COOKIES)
-  Curl_share_lock(data, CURL_LOCK_DATA_COOKIE, CURL_LOCK_ACCESS_SINGLE);
-  if(data->set.str[STRING_COOKIEJAR]) {
-    if(data->change.cookielist) {
-      /* If there is a list of cookie files to read, do it first so that
-         we have all the told files read before we write the new jar */
-      Curl_cookie_loadfiles(data);
-    }
-
-    /* we have a "destination" for all the cookies to get dumped to */
-    if(Curl_cookie_output(data->cookies, data->set.str[STRING_COOKIEJAR]))
-      infof(data, "WARNING: failed to save cookies in %s\n",
-            data->set.str[STRING_COOKIEJAR]);
-  }
-  else {
-    if(data->change.cookielist)
-      /* since nothing is written, we can just free the list of cookie file
-         names */
-      curl_slist_free_all(data->change.cookielist); /* clean up list */
-  }
-
-  if( !data->share || (data->cookies != data->share->cookies) ) {
-    Curl_cookie_cleanup(data->cookies);
-  }
-  Curl_share_unlock(data, CURL_LOCK_DATA_COOKIE);
+  flush_cookies(data, 1);
 #endif
 
   Curl_digest_cleanup(data);
@@ -1089,6 +1100,11 @@ CURLcode Curl_setopt(struct SessionHandle *data, CURLoption option,
       Curl_cookie_clearsess(data->cookies);
       break;
     }
+    else if(strequal(argptr, "FLUSH")) {
+      /* flush cookies to file */
+      flush_cookies(data, 0);
+      break;
+    }
 
     if(!data->cookies)
       /* if cookie engine was not running, activate it */