diff --git a/classes/chrpath.oeclass b/classes/chrpath.oeclass
index 2153cc61..9683b096 100644
--- a/classes/chrpath.oeclass
+++ b/classes/chrpath.oeclass
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ CHRPATH_REPLACE_STAGEDIRS:cross		= "1"
 CHRPATH_REPLACE_STAGEDIRS:sdk-cross	= "1"
 
 do_chrpath[dirs] = "${D}"
+do_chrpath[__async] = "${__ASYNC_CHRPATH}"
 def do_chrpath(d):
     import stat
     import oelite.magiccache
diff --git a/classes/fetch.oeclass b/classes/fetch.oeclass
index e60e3160..1dc9b60a 100644
--- a/classes/fetch.oeclass
+++ b/classes/fetch.oeclass
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ def fetch_init(d):
 
 do_fetch[dirs] = "${INGREDIENTS}"
 
+do_fetch[__async] = "${__ASYNC_FETCH}"
 def do_fetch(d):
     sigfile_changed = False
     for uri in d.get("__fetch"):
@@ -91,6 +92,7 @@ def do_fetch(d):
 do_unpack[dirs] = "${SRCDIR}"
 do_unpack[cleandirs] = "${SRCDIR}"
 
+do_unpack[__async] = "${__ASYNC_UNPACK}"
 def do_unpack(d):
     for uri in d.get("__fetch"):
         if "unpack" in uri.params:
diff --git a/classes/package.oeclass b/classes/package.oeclass
index b0c2bf43..7033b695 100644
--- a/classes/package.oeclass
+++ b/classes/package.oeclass
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ do_split[dirs] = "${PKGD} ${D}"
 # The FILES_* and ALLOW_EMPTY_* variables are exclusive for do_split task
 META_EMIT_PREFIX += "split:FILES_${PN} split:ALLOW_EMPTY"
 
+do_split[__async] = "${__ASYNC_SPLIT}"
 def do_split(d):
     import errno, stat
 
@@ -151,6 +152,7 @@ LICENSE[emit]		= "do_package"
 HOMEPAGE[emit]		= "do_package"
 MAINTAINER[emit]	= "do_package"
 
+do_package[__async] = "${__ASYNC_PACKAGE}"
 def do_package(d):
     import bb, os
 
diff --git a/classes/stage.oeclass b/classes/stage.oeclass
index ada46cda..19107562 100644
--- a/classes/stage.oeclass
+++ b/classes/stage.oeclass
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ do_stage[dirs]		= "${STAGE_DIR}"
 do_stage[recdeptask]	= "DEPENDS:do_package"
 
 do_stage[import] = "set_stage"
+do_stage[__async] = "${__ASYNC_STAGE}"
 def do_stage(d):
     def get_dstdir(cwd, package):
         return os.path.join(cwd, package.type)
diff --git a/lib/oelite/function.py b/lib/oelite/function.py
index 456ada18..2c602e6e 100644
--- a/lib/oelite/function.py
+++ b/lib/oelite/function.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import warnings
 import re
 import subprocess
+import traceback
 
 class OEliteFunction(object):
 
@@ -68,6 +69,22 @@ def start(self, cwd):
         self.result = True
 
 
+# Making a PythonFunction run asynchronously is not that easy:
+#
+# (1) we cannot use threads, since many of the functions
+# (e.g. do_fetch, do_unpack) expect to have a specific $CWD, and
+# that's a global resource in the process - those functions would fail
+# immediately when the main thread chdirs away.
+#
+# (2) we cannot just fork() and do everything in the child, since some
+# PythonFunctions really must mutate state in the main oe process
+# (most notably all hook functions that run during and immediately
+# after recipe parsing).
+#
+# (3) even if we do (2) on an opt-in basis, I'm not entirely convinced
+# we never rely on e.g. do_unpack changing that task's
+# metadata. Nevertheless, this is what we'll try to do.
+
 class PythonFunction(OEliteFunction):
 
     def __init__(self, meta, var, name=None, tmpdir=None, recursion_path=None,
@@ -99,9 +116,87 @@ def __init__(self, meta, var, name=None, tmpdir=None, recursion_path=None,
         self.function = l[var]
         self.set_os_environ = set_os_environ
         self.result = False
+        self.async = bool(int(meta.get_flag(var, "__async", expand=oelite.meta.CLEAN_EXPANSION) or 0))
         super(PythonFunction, self).__init__(meta, var, name, tmpdir)
         return
 
+    def _start(self):
+        if not self.async:
+            self.result = self()
+            return
+        # prevent duplicate output from stdio buffers
+        sys.stdout.flush()
+        sys.stderr.flush()
+
+        self.childpid = os.fork()
+        # This raise OSError on error, so there's no < 0 case to consider.
+        if self.childpid > 0:
+            # parent
+            return
+
+        # child
+
+        # If there's an exception, we want to get as much info as
+        # possible printed, not just the stringification of the
+        # exception object itself. The traceback module "exactly
+        # mimics the behavior of the Python interpreter when it prints
+        # a stack trace".
+
+        # We can only tell our parent how it went via our exit
+        # code. Important: We cannot call sys.exit(), since that is
+        # implemented by raising SystemExit, and we really must not
+        # return from this function - otherwise we go all the way back
+        # to the main loop in baker.py, get caught by the try-finally
+        # block, which then triggers the "wait for remaining tasks"
+        # logic, and we fail miserably since we do not have the child
+        # being waited for (that's us!). So we use
+        # os._exit(). However, we then need to ensure proper buffer
+        # flushing etc. manually.
+        exitcode = 0
+        try:
+            ret = self()
+            if not ret:
+                exitcode = 1
+        except:
+            traceback.print_exc()
+            exitcode = 2
+        # We don't want any silly error during what should be the
+        # proper way to shutdown manually to interfere with the exit
+        # code.
+        try:
+            sys.stdout.flush()
+            sys.stderr.flush()
+            # What else do we need to do?
+        finally:
+            os._exit(exitcode)
+        assert(0) # not reached
+
+    def wait(self, poll=False):
+        if not self.async:
+            assert(self.result is True or self.result is False)
+            return self.result
+
+        flags = 0
+        if poll:
+            flags = os.WNOHANG
+
+        pid, status = os.waitpid(self.childpid, flags)
+        if not pid:
+            # This should only happen if we passed WNOHANG.
+            assert(poll)
+            return None
+
+        assert(pid == self.childpid)
+        if os.WIFEXITED(status):
+            if os.WEXITSTATUS(status) == 0:
+                return True
+            print "forked python process exited with status %d" % os.WEXITSTATUS(status)
+        elif os.WIFSIGNALED(status):
+            print "forked python process killed from signal %d" % os.WTERMSIG(status)
+        else:
+            print "forked python process died for unknown reason (%d)" % status
+        return False
+
     def __call__(self):
 
         if self.set_os_environ: