diff --git a/mkfifo.1 b/mkfifo.1
index 8ff8da3..0f60d87 100644
--- a/mkfifo.1
+++ b/mkfifo.1
@@ -3,9 +3,17 @@
 mkfifo \- make named pipe
 .SH SYNOPSIS
 .B mkfifo
-.RI [ name ...]
+.RB [ \-m
+.IR mode ]
+.I name ...
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 .B mkfifo
 creates named pipes (FIFOs) with the given names.
+.SH OPTIONS
+.TP
+.B \-m
+Set the file permission bits of newly created FIFOs to mode.  The mode
+is specified in octal as we do not currently support all the formats that
+the chmod(1) utility supports.
 .SH SEE ALSO
 .IR mkfifo (3)
diff --git a/mkfifo.c b/mkfifo.c
index 24015fe..3f2d618 100644
--- a/mkfifo.c
+++ b/mkfifo.c
@@ -8,13 +8,19 @@
 static void
 usage(void)
 {
-	eprintf("usage: %s name...\n", argv0);
+	eprintf("usage: %s [-m mode] name...\n", argv0);
 }
 
 int
 main(int argc, char *argv[])
 {
+	mode_t mode = S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP |
+		S_IWGRP | S_IROTH | S_IWOTH;
+
 	ARGBEGIN {
+	case 'm':
+		mode = estrtol(EARGF(usage()), 8);
+		break;
 	default:
 		usage();
 	} ARGEND;
@@ -22,12 +28,9 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 	if (argc < 1)
 		usage();
 
-	for(; argc > 0; argc--, argv++) {
-		if(mkfifo(argv[0], S_IRUSR|S_IWUSR|S_IRGRP|\
-					S_IWGRP|S_IROTH|S_IWOTH) == -1) {
+	for(; argc > 0; argc--, argv++)
+		if(mkfifo(argv[0], mode) == -1)
 			eprintf("mkfifo %s:", argv[0]);
-		}
-	}
 	return EXIT_SUCCESS;
 }