diff --git a/wp-admin/upgrade-functions.php b/wp-admin/upgrade-functions.php
index ecea10a892..0b96f8bb10 100644
--- a/wp-admin/upgrade-functions.php
+++ b/wp-admin/upgrade-functions.php
@@ -673,7 +673,7 @@ function upgrade_101() {
 }
 
 function upgrade_110() {
-  global $wpdb, $tableusers, $tablecomments, $tableposts, $tableoptiongroups, $tableoptiongroup_options, $tableoptions;
+  global $wpdb, $tableusers, $tablecomments, $tableposts, $tableoptiongroups, $tableoptiongroup_options, $tableoptions, $tablepostmeta;
 	
 	maybe_add_column($tablecomments, 'user_id', "ALTER TABLE `$tablecomments` ADD `user_id` INT DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL ;");
 	maybe_add_column($tableusers, 'user_activation_key', "ALTER TABLE `$tableusers` ADD `user_activation_key` VARCHAR( 60 ) NOT NULL ;");
@@ -753,6 +753,20 @@ function upgrade_110() {
 		}
 
 	}
+ 
+	// post-meta
+	maybe_create_table($tablepostmeta, "
+	CREATE TABLE $tablepostmeta (
+	  meta_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
+	  post_id int(11) NOT NULL default 0,
+	  meta_key varchar(255),
+	  meta_value text,
+	  PRIMARY KEY (meta_id),
+	  INDEX (post_id),
+	  INDEX (meta_key)
+	)
+	");
+
 }
 
 ?>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/wp-blog-header.php b/wp-blog-header.php
index 436f46873b..cc4aec4e7c 100644
--- a/wp-blog-header.php
+++ b/wp-blog-header.php
@@ -448,6 +448,33 @@ if ($posts) {
         $comment_count_cache["$comment_count->ID"] = $comment_count->ccount;
     }
 
+	// Get post-meta info
+	if ( $meta_list = $wpdb->get_results("
+			SELECT post_id,meta_key,meta_value 
+			FROM $tablepostmeta 
+			WHERE post_id IN($post_id_list)
+			ORDER BY post_id,meta_key
+		", ARRAY_A) ) {
+		
+		// Change from flat structure to hierarchical:
+		$post_meta_cache = array();
+		foreach ($meta_list as $metarow) {
+			$mpid = $metarow['post_id'];
+			$mkey = $metarow['meta_key'];
+			$mval = $metarow['meta_value'];
+			
+			// Force subkeys to be array type:
+			if (!is_array($post_meta_cache[$mpid]))
+				$post_meta_cache[$mpid] = array();
+			if (!is_array($post_meta_cache[$mpid][$mkey]))
+				$post_meta_cache[$mpid][$mkey] = array();
+			
+			// Add a value to the current pid/key:
+			$post_meta_cache[$mpid][$mkey][] = $mval;
+		}
+	}
+
+
     if (1 == count($posts)) {
         if ($p || $name) {
             $more = 1;
diff --git a/wp-includes/template-functions-post.php b/wp-includes/template-functions-post.php
index eb117af566..0541881647 100644
--- a/wp-includes/template-functions-post.php
+++ b/wp-includes/template-functions-post.php
@@ -443,4 +443,44 @@ function posts_nav_link($sep=' :: ', $prelabel='<< Previous Page', $nxtlabel='Ne
     }
 }
 
-?>
\ No newline at end of file
+/*
+ * Post-meta: Custom per-post fields.
+ */
+ 
+function get_post_custom() {
+	global $id, $post_meta_cache;
+
+	return $post_meta_cache[$id];
+}
+
+function get_post_custom_keys() {
+	global $id, $post_meta_cache;
+	
+	if (!is_array($post_meta_cache[$id]))
+		return;
+	if ($keys = array_keys($post_meta_cache[$id]))
+		return $keys;
+}
+
+function get_post_custom_values($key='') {
+	global $id, $post_meta_cache;
+
+	return $post_meta_cache[$id][$key];
+}
+
+// this will probably change at some point...
+function the_meta() {
+	global $id, $post_meta_cache;
+	
+	if ($keys = get_post_custom_keys()) {
+		echo "<ul>\n";
+		foreach ($keys as $key) {
+			$value = implode($post_meta_cache[$id][$key],',');
+			
+			echo "<li>$key: $value</li>\n";
+		}
+		echo "</ul>\n";
+	}
+}
+
+?>
diff --git a/wp-settings.php b/wp-settings.php
index 39d1e483ad..cbc47b08db 100644
--- a/wp-settings.php
+++ b/wp-settings.php
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ $tableoptiontypes         = $table_prefix . 'optiontypes';
 $tableoptionvalues        = $table_prefix . 'optionvalues';
 $tableoptiongroups        = $table_prefix . 'optiongroups';
 $tableoptiongroup_options = $table_prefix . 'optiongroup_options';
+$tablepostmeta            = $table_prefix . 'postmeta';
 define('WPINC', 'wp-includes');
 require_once (ABSPATH . WPINC . '/wp-db.php');
 
@@ -115,4 +116,4 @@ if (get_settings('hack_file')) {
 
 
 
-?>
\ No newline at end of file
+?>