diff --git a/Monitor.c b/Monitor.c
index b02ab3c..3197b42 100644
--- a/Monitor.c
+++ b/Monitor.c
@@ -628,3 +628,91 @@ int Wait(char *dev)
 		mdstat_wait(5);
 	}
 }
+
+static char *clean_states[] = {
+	"clear", "inactive", "readonly", "read-auto", "clean", NULL };
+
+int WaitClean(char *dev)
+{
+	int fd;
+	struct mdinfo *mdi;
+	int rv = 1;
+	int devnum;
+
+	fd = open(dev, O_RDONLY); 
+	if (fd < 0) {
+		fprintf(stderr, Name ": Couldn't open %s: %s\n", dev, strerror(errno));
+		return 1;
+	}
+
+	devnum = fd2devnum(fd);
+	mdi = sysfs_read(fd, devnum, GET_VERSION|GET_LEVEL|GET_SAFEMODE);
+	if (!mdi) {
+		fprintf(stderr, Name ": Failed to read sysfs attributes for "
+			"%s\n", dev);
+		close(fd);
+		return 0;
+	}
+
+	switch(mdi->array.level) {
+	case LEVEL_LINEAR:
+	case LEVEL_MULTIPATH:
+	case 0:
+		/* safemode delay is irrelevant for these levels */
+		rv = 0;
+		
+	}
+
+	/* for internal metadata the kernel handles the final clean
+	 * transition, containers can never be dirty
+	 */
+	if (!is_subarray(mdi->text_version))
+		rv = 0;
+
+	/* safemode disabled ? */
+	if (mdi->safe_mode_delay == 0)
+		rv = 0;
+
+	if (rv) {
+		int state_fd = sysfs_open(fd2devnum(fd), NULL, "array_state");
+		unsigned long secs;
+		char buf[20];
+
+		secs = mdi->safe_mode_delay / 1000;
+		if (mdi->safe_mode_delay - secs * 1000)
+			secs++;
+		secs *= 2;
+
+		for (; secs; secs--) {
+			rv = read(state_fd, buf, sizeof(buf));
+			if (rv < 0)
+				break;
+			if (sysfs_match_word(buf, clean_states) <= 4)
+				break;
+			sleep(1);
+			lseek(state_fd, 0, SEEK_SET);
+		}
+		if (rv < 0)
+			rv = 1;
+		else if (secs) {
+			/* we need to ping to close the window between array
+			 * state transitioning to clean and the metadata being
+			 * marked clean
+			 */
+			if (ping_monitor(mdi->text_version) == 0)
+				rv = 0;
+		}
+		if (rv)
+			fprintf(stderr, Name ": Error waiting for %s to be clean\n",
+				dev);
+
+		close(state_fd);
+	}
+
+	sysfs_free(mdi);		
+	close(fd);
+
+	return rv;
+}
+
+
diff --git a/ReadMe.c b/ReadMe.c
index 12ed17f..1fcad30 100644
--- a/ReadMe.c
+++ b/ReadMe.c
@@ -161,6 +161,7 @@ struct option long_options[] = {
     {"readwrite", 0, 0, 'w'},
     {"no-degraded",0,0,  NoDegraded },
     {"wait",	  0, 0, 'W'},
+    {"wait-clean", 0, 0, Waitclean },
 
     /* For Detail/Examine */
     {"brief",	  0, 0, 'b'},
diff --git a/mdadm.8 b/mdadm.8
index 3c283ca..ab659fc 100644
--- a/mdadm.8
+++ b/mdadm.8
@@ -1014,6 +1014,12 @@ activity to finish before returning.
 will return with success if it actually waited for every device
 listed, otherwise it will return failure.
 
+.TP
+.BR \-\-wait\-clean
+For each md device given, wait for the array to be marked clean before
+returning.  For native arrays this returns immediately as the kernel
+handles dirty-clean transistions at shutdown.  
+
 .SH For Incremental Assembly mode:
 .TP
 .BR \-\-rebuild\-map ", " \-r
diff --git a/mdadm.c b/mdadm.c
index b7865ef..6732352 100644
--- a/mdadm.c
+++ b/mdadm.c
@@ -214,6 +214,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 		case 'o':
 		case 'w':
 		case 'W':
+		case Waitclean:
 		case 'K': if (!mode) newmode = MISC; break;
 		}
 		if (mode && newmode == mode) {
@@ -770,6 +771,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 		case O(MISC,'o'):
 		case O(MISC,'w'):
 		case O(MISC,'W'):
+		case O(MISC, Waitclean):
 			if (devmode && devmode != opt &&
 			    (devmode == 'E' || (opt == 'E' && devmode != 'Q'))) {
 				fprintf(stderr, Name ": --examine/-E cannot be given with -%c\n",
@@ -1280,6 +1282,8 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 					rv |= ExamineBitmap(dv->devname, brief, ss); continue;
 				case 'W':
 					rv |= Wait(dv->devname); continue;
+				case Waitclean:
+					rv |= WaitClean(dv->devname); continue;
 				}
 				mdfd = open_mddev(dv->devname, 1);
 				if (mdfd>=0) {
diff --git a/mdadm.h b/mdadm.h
index 2eaaffd..5ef69f3 100644
--- a/mdadm.h
+++ b/mdadm.h
@@ -224,6 +224,7 @@ enum special_options {
 	AutoHomeHost,
 	Symlinks,
 	AutoDetect,
+	Waitclean,
 };
 
 /* structures read from config file */
@@ -327,6 +328,7 @@ extern void map_add(struct map_ent **melp,
 #define	GET_VERSION	64
 #define	GET_DISKS	128
 #define	GET_DEGRADED	256
+#define	GET_SAFEMODE	512
 
 #define	GET_DEVS	1024 /* gets role, major, minor */
 #define	GET_OFFSET	2048
@@ -340,6 +342,8 @@ extern void map_add(struct map_ent **melp,
 extern int sysfs_open(int devnum, char *devname, char *attr);
 extern void sysfs_free(struct mdinfo *sra);
 extern struct mdinfo *sysfs_read(int fd, int devnum, unsigned long options);
+extern int sysfs_attr_match(const char *attr, const char *str);
+extern int sysfs_match_word(const char *word, char **list);
 extern int sysfs_set_str(struct mdinfo *sra, struct mdinfo *dev,
 			 char *name, char *val);
 extern int sysfs_set_num(struct mdinfo *sra, struct mdinfo *dev,
@@ -705,6 +709,7 @@ extern int Monitor(mddev_dev_t devlist,
 
 extern int Kill(char *dev, int force, int quiet, int noexcl);
 extern int Wait(char *dev);
+extern int WaitClean(char *dev);
 
 extern int Incremental(char *devname, int verbose, int runstop,
 		       struct supertype *st, char *homehost, int autof);
diff --git a/monitor.c b/monitor.c
index a1d87e1..35f80a7 100644
--- a/monitor.c
+++ b/monitor.c
@@ -47,7 +47,6 @@ static int read_attr(char *buf, int len, int fd)
 	return n;
 }
 
-
 int get_resync_start(struct active_array *a)
 {
 	char buf[30];
@@ -62,30 +61,6 @@ int get_resync_start(struct active_array *a)
 	return 1;
 }
 
-static int attr_match(const char *attr, const char *str)
-{
-	/* See if attr, read from a sysfs file, matches
-	 * str.  They must either be the same, or attr can
-	 * have a trailing newline or comma
-	 */
-	while (*attr && *str && *attr == *str) {
-		attr++;
-		str++;
-	}
-
-	if (*str || (*attr && *attr != ',' && *attr != '\n'))
-		return 0;
-	return 1;
-}
-
-static int match_word(const char *word, char **list)
-{
-	int n;
-	for (n=0; list[n]; n++)
-		if (attr_match(word, list[n]))
-			break;
-	return n;
-}
 
 static enum array_state read_state(int fd)
 {
@@ -94,7 +69,7 @@ static enum array_state read_state(int fd)
 
 	if (n <= 0)
 		return bad_word;
-	return (enum array_state) match_word(buf, array_states);
+	return (enum array_state) sysfs_match_word(buf, array_states);
 }
 
 static enum sync_action read_action( int fd)
@@ -104,7 +79,7 @@ static enum sync_action read_action( int fd)
 
 	if (n <= 0)
 		return bad_action;
-	return (enum sync_action) match_word(buf, sync_actions);
+	return (enum sync_action) sysfs_match_word(buf, sync_actions);
 }
 
 int read_dev_state(int fd)
@@ -119,15 +94,15 @@ int read_dev_state(int fd)
 
 	cp = buf;
 	while (cp) {
-		if (attr_match(cp, "faulty"))
+		if (sysfs_attr_match(cp, "faulty"))
 			rv |= DS_FAULTY;
-		if (attr_match(cp, "in_sync"))
+		if (sysfs_attr_match(cp, "in_sync"))
 			rv |= DS_INSYNC;
-		if (attr_match(cp, "write_mostly"))
+		if (sysfs_attr_match(cp, "write_mostly"))
 			rv |= DS_WRITE_MOSTLY;
-		if (attr_match(cp, "spare"))
+		if (sysfs_attr_match(cp, "spare"))
 			rv |= DS_SPARE;
-		if (attr_match(cp, "blocked"))
+		if (sysfs_attr_match(cp, "blocked"))
 			rv |= DS_BLOCKED;
 		cp = strchr(cp, ',');
 		if (cp)
diff --git a/sysfs.c b/sysfs.c
index dced322..182028c 100644
--- a/sysfs.c
+++ b/sysfs.c
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 
 #include	"mdadm.h"
 #include	<dirent.h>
+#include	<ctype.h>
 
 int load_sys(char *path, char *buf)
 {
@@ -185,6 +186,35 @@ struct mdinfo *sysfs_read(int fd, int devnum, unsigned long options)
 			goto abort;
 		sra->mismatch_cnt = strtoul(buf, NULL, 0);
 	}
+	if (options & GET_SAFEMODE) {
+		int scale = 1;
+		int dot = 0;
+		int i;
+		unsigned long msec;
+		size_t len;
+
+		strcpy(base, "safe_mode_delay");
+		if (load_sys(fname, buf))
+			goto abort;
+
+		/* remove a period, and count digits after it */
+		len = strlen(buf);
+		for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+			if (dot) {
+				if (isdigit(buf[i])) {
+					buf[i-1] = buf[i];
+					scale *= 10;
+				}
+				buf[i] = 0;
+			} else if (buf[i] == '.') {
+				dot=1;
+				buf[i] = 0;
+			}
+		}
+		msec = strtoul(buf, NULL, 10);
+		msec = (msec * 1000) / scale;
+		sra->safe_mode_delay = msec;
+	}
 
 	if (! (options & GET_DEVS))
 		return sra;
@@ -265,6 +295,31 @@ struct mdinfo *sysfs_read(int fd, int devnum, unsigned long options)
 	return NULL;
 }
 
+int sysfs_attr_match(const char *attr, const char *str)
+{
+	/* See if attr, read from a sysfs file, matches
+	 * str.  They must either be the same, or attr can
+	 * have a trailing newline or comma
+	 */
+	while (*attr && *str && *attr == *str) {
+		attr++;
+		str++;
+	}
+
+	if (*str || (*attr && *attr != ',' && *attr != '\n'))
+		return 0;
+	return 1;
+}
+
+int sysfs_match_word(const char *word, char **list)
+{
+	int n;
+	for (n=0; list[n]; n++)
+		if (sysfs_attr_match(word, list[n]))
+			break;
+	return n;
+}
+
 unsigned long long get_component_size(int fd)
 {
 	/* Find out the component size of the array.