diff --git a/unix/dev_linux.go b/unix/dev_linux.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c902c39e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/unix/dev_linux.go
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+// Copyright 2017 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+// Functions to access/create device major and minor numbers matching the
+// encoding used by the Linux kernel and glibc.
+//
+// The information below is extracted and adapted from bits/sysmacros.h in the
+// glibc sources:
+//
+// dev_t in glibc is 64-bit, with 32-bit major and minor numbers. glibc's
+// default encoding is MMMM Mmmm mmmM MMmm, where M is a hex digit of the major
+// number and m is a hex digit of the minor number. This is backward compatible
+// with legacy systems where dev_t is 16 bits wide, encoded as MMmm. It is also
+// backward compatible with the Linux kernel, which for some architectures uses
+// 32-bit dev_t, encoded as mmmM MMmm.
+
+package unix
+
+// Major returns the major component of a Linux device number.
+func Major(dev uint64) uint32 {
+	major := uint32((dev & 0x00000000000fff00) >> 8)
+	major |= uint32((dev & 0xfffff00000000000) >> 32)
+	return major
+}
+
+// Minor returns the minor component of a Linux device number.
+func Minor(dev uint64) uint32 {
+	minor := uint32((dev & 0x00000000000000ff) >> 0)
+	minor |= uint32((dev & 0x00000ffffff00000) >> 12)
+	return minor
+}
+
+// Mkdev returns a Linux device number generated from the given major and minor
+// components.
+func Mkdev(major, minor uint32) uint64 {
+	dev := uint64((major & 0x00000fff) << 8)
+	dev |= uint64((major & 0xfffff000) << 32)
+	dev |= uint64((minor & 0x000000ff) << 0)
+	dev |= uint64((minor & 0xffffff00) << 12)
+	return dev
+}
diff --git a/unix/dev_linux_test.go b/unix/dev_linux_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6e001f37
--- /dev/null
+++ b/unix/dev_linux_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+// Copyright 2017 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package unix_test
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"testing"
+
+	"golang.org/x/sys/unix"
+)
+
+func TestDevices(t *testing.T) {
+	testCases := []struct {
+		path  string
+		major uint32
+		minor uint32
+	}{
+		// well known major/minor numbers according to
+		// https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/Documentation/admin-guide/devices.txt
+		{"/dev/null", 1, 3},
+		{"/dev/zero", 1, 5},
+		{"/dev/random", 1, 8},
+		{"/dev/full", 1, 7},
+		{"/dev/urandom", 1, 9},
+		{"/dev/tty", 5, 0},
+	}
+	for _, tc := range testCases {
+		t.Run(fmt.Sprintf("%s %v:%v", tc.path, tc.major, tc.minor), func(t *testing.T) {
+			var stat unix.Stat_t
+			err := unix.Stat(tc.path, &stat)
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Errorf("failed to stat device: %v", err)
+				return
+			}
+
+			dev := uint64(stat.Rdev)
+			if unix.Major(dev) != tc.major {
+				t.Errorf("for %s Major(%#x) == %d, want %d", tc.path, dev, unix.Major(dev), tc.major)
+			}
+			if unix.Minor(dev) != tc.minor {
+				t.Errorf("for %s Minor(%#x) == %d, want %d", tc.path, dev, unix.Minor(dev), tc.minor)
+			}
+			if unix.Mkdev(tc.major, tc.minor) != dev {
+				t.Errorf("for %s Mkdev(%d, %d) == %#x, want %#x", tc.path, tc.major, tc.minor, unix.Mkdev(tc.major, tc.minor), dev)
+			}
+		})
+
+	}
+}