diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ee95c0fc9..343ba4a5f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
   - SUSE host only networking support. [GH-369]
   - Show nice error message for invalid HTTP responses for HTTP
     downloader. [GH-403]
+  - New `:inline` option for shell provisioner to provide inline
+    scripts as a string. [GH-395]
 
 ## 0.7.6 (July 2, 2011)
 
diff --git a/lib/vagrant/provisioners/shell.rb b/lib/vagrant/provisioners/shell.rb
index 9f6c8ce67..97f22453a 100644
--- a/lib/vagrant/provisioners/shell.rb
+++ b/lib/vagrant/provisioners/shell.rb
@@ -4,10 +4,13 @@ module Vagrant
       register :shell
 
       class Config < Vagrant::Config::Base
+        attr_accessor :inline
         attr_accessor :path
         attr_accessor :upload_path
 
         def initialize
+          @inline = nil
+          @path = nil
           @upload_path = "/tmp/vagrant-shell"
         end
 
@@ -18,31 +21,63 @@ module Vagrant
         def validate(errors)
           super
 
-          if !path
-            errors.add(I18n.t("vagrant.provisioners.shell.path_not_set"))
-          elsif !expanded_path.file?
+          # Validate that the parameters are properly set
+          if path && inline
+            errors.add(I18n.t("vagrant.provisioners.shell.path_and_inline_set"))
+          elsif !path && !inline
+            errors.add(I18n.t("vagrant.provisioners.shell.no_path_or_inline"))
+          end
+
+          # Validate the existence of a script to upload
+          if path && !expanded_path.file?
             errors.add(I18n.t("vagrant.provisioners.shell.path_invalid", :path => expanded_path))
           end
 
+          # There needs to be a path to upload the script to
           if !upload_path
             errors.add(I18n.t("vagrant.provisioners.shell.upload_path_not_set"))
           end
         end
       end
 
+      # This method yields the path to a script to upload and execute
+      # on the remote server. This method will properly clean up the
+      # script file if needed.
+      def with_script_file
+        if config.path
+          # Just yield the path to that file...
+          yield config.expanded_path
+          return
+        end
+
+        # Otherwise we have an inline script, we need to Tempfile it,
+        # and handle it specially...
+        file = Tempfile.new('vagrant-shell')
+        begin
+          file.write(config.inline)
+          file.fsync
+          yield file.path
+        ensure
+          file.close
+          file.unlink
+        end
+      end
+
       def provision!
         commands = ["chmod +x #{config.upload_path}", config.upload_path]
 
-        # Upload the script to the VM
-        vm.ssh.upload!(config.expanded_path.to_s, config.upload_path)
+        with_script_file do |path|
+          # Upload the script to the VM
+          vm.ssh.upload!(path.to_s, config.upload_path)
 
-        # Execute it with sudo
-        vm.ssh.execute do |ssh|
-          ssh.sudo!(commands) do |ch, type, data|
-            if type == :exit_status
-              ssh.check_exit_status(data, commands)
-            else
-              env.ui.info(data)
+          # Execute it with sudo
+          vm.ssh.execute do |ssh|
+            ssh.sudo!(commands) do |ch, type, data|
+              if type == :exit_status
+                ssh.check_exit_status(data, commands)
+              else
+                env.ui.info(data)
+              end
             end
           end
         end
diff --git a/templates/locales/en.yml b/templates/locales/en.yml
index 3beff04ac..2199d3c15 100644
--- a/templates/locales/en.yml
+++ b/templates/locales/en.yml
@@ -512,7 +512,8 @@ en:
         running_puppetd: "Running Puppet agent..."
 
       shell:
-        path_not_set: "`path` parameter pointing to script file to execute for shell provisioner is required"
+        path_and_inline_set: "Only one of `path` or `inline` may be set."
+        no_path_or_inline: "One of `path` or `inline` must be set."
         path_invalid: "`path` for shell provisioner does not exist on the host system: %{path}"
         upload_path_not_set: "`upload_path` must be set for the shell provisioner."