Index: src/0dev.org/ioutil/ioutil.go
==================================================================
--- src/0dev.org/ioutil/ioutil.go
+++ src/0dev.org/ioutil/ioutil.go
@@ -18,10 +18,20 @@
 
 // Delegates the call to the WriterFunc while implementing io.Reader.
 func (r ReaderFunc) Read(b []byte) (int, error) {
 	return r(b)
 }
+
+// Reads a single byte from the provided io.Reader
+func ReadByte(reader io.Reader) (byte, error) {
+	var (
+		arr [1]byte
+		err error
+	)
+	_, err = reader.Read(arr[:])
+	return arr[0], err
+}
 
 // Returns a writer that delegates calls to Write(...) while ensuring
 // that it is never called with less bytes than the specified amount.
 //
 // Calls with fewer bytes are buffered while a call with a nil slice

Index: src/0dev.org/ioutil/ioutil_test.go
==================================================================
--- src/0dev.org/ioutil/ioutil_test.go
+++ src/0dev.org/ioutil/ioutil_test.go
@@ -45,10 +45,30 @@
 		func(i, j int) bool { return input[i] == output[j] }})
 	if len(delta.Added) > 0 || len(delta.Removed) > 0 {
 		t.Error("Differences detected ", delta)
 	}
 }
+
+func TestReadByte(t *testing.T) {
+	var (
+		input  []byte        = []byte{255}
+		reader *bytes.Reader = bytes.NewReader(input)
+	)
+
+	result, err := ReadByte(reader)
+	if result != input[0] {
+		t.Error("Unexpected read result from ReadByte", result)
+	}
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Error("Unexpected error from ReadByte", err)
+	}
+
+	result, err = ReadByte(reader)
+	if err != io.EOF {
+		t.Error("Unexpected nil error from ReadByte, read value:", result)
+	}
+}
 
 func TestSizedWriter(t *testing.T) {
 	var (
 		buffer bytes.Buffer
 		writer io.Writer = SizedWriter(&buffer, 4)