diff --git a/unix/example_test.go b/unix/example_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3ddf90fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/unix/example_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+// Copyright 2018 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
+
+import (
+	"log"
+	"os"
+	"syscall"
+)
+
+func ExampleExec() {
+	err := syscall.Exec("/bin/ls", []string{"ls", "-al"}, os.Environ())
+	log.Fatal(err)
+}
diff --git a/unix/syscall_unix.go b/unix/syscall_unix.go
index 80b05a40..95ce5557 100644
--- a/unix/syscall_unix.go
+++ b/unix/syscall_unix.go
@@ -305,3 +305,12 @@ func SetNonblock(fd int, nonblocking bool) (err error) {
 	_, err = fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, flag)
 	return err
 }
+
+// Exec calls execve(2), which replaces the calling executable in the process
+// tree. argv0 should be the full path to an executable ("/bin/ls") and the
+// executable name should also be the first argument in argv (["ls", "-l"]).
+// envv are the environment variables that should be passed to the new
+// process (["USER=go", "PWD=/tmp"]).
+func Exec(argv0 string, argv []string, envv []string) error {
+	return syscall.Exec(argv0, argv, envv)
+}