diff --git a/src/calibre/srv/async.py b/src/calibre/srv/async.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..841775272d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/calibre/srv/async.py
@@ -0,0 +1,334 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python2
+# vim:fileencoding=utf-8
+from __future__ import (unicode_literals, division, absolute_import,
+                        print_function)
+
+__license__ = 'GPL v3'
+__copyright__ = '2015, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>'
+
+import ssl, socket, select, os
+from io import BytesIO
+
+from calibre import as_unicode
+from calibre.srv.opts import Options
+from calibre.srv.utils import (
+    socket_errors_socket_closed, socket_errors_nonblocking)
+from calibre.utils.socket_inheritance import set_socket_inherit
+from calibre.utils.logging import ThreadSafeLog
+from calibre.utils.monotonic import monotonic
+
+READ, WRITE, RDWR = 'READ', 'WRITE', 'RDWR'
+
+class Connection(object):
+
+    def __init__(self, socket, opts, ssl_context):
+        self.opts = opts
+        self.ssl_context = ssl_context
+        self.wait_for = READ
+        if self.ssl_context is not None:
+            self.ready = False
+            self.socket = self.ssl_context.wrap_socket(socket, server_side=True, do_handshake_on_connect=False)
+            self.set_state(RDWR, self.do_ssl_handshake)
+        else:
+            self.ready = True
+            self.socket = socket
+            self.connection_ready()
+        self.last_activity = monotonic()
+
+    def set_state(self, wait_for, func):
+        self.wait_for = wait_for
+        self.handle_event = func
+
+    def do_ssl_handshake(self, event):
+        try:
+            self._sslobj.do_handshake()
+        except ssl.SSLWantReadError:
+            self.set_state(READ, self.do_ssl_handshake)
+        except ssl.SSLWantWriteError:
+            self.set_state(WRITE, self.do_ssl_handshake)
+        self.ready = True
+        self.connection_ready()
+
+    def send(self, data):
+        try:
+            ret = self.socket.send(data)
+            self.last_activity = monotonic()
+            return ret
+        except socket.error as e:
+            if e.errno in socket_errors_nonblocking:
+                return 0
+            elif e.errno in socket_errors_socket_closed:
+                self.ready = False
+                return 0
+            raise
+
+    def recv(self, buffer_size):
+        try:
+            data = self.socket.recv(buffer_size)
+            self.last_activity = monotonic()
+            if not data:
+                # a closed connection is indicated by signaling
+                # a read condition, and having recv() return 0.
+                self.ready = False
+                return b''
+            return data
+        except socket.error as e:
+            if e.errno in socket_errors_socket_closed:
+                self.ready = False
+                return b''
+
+    def close(self):
+        self.ready = False
+        try:
+            self.socket.shutdown(socket.SHUT_WR)
+            self.socket.close()
+        except socket.error:
+            pass
+
+    def connection_ready(self):
+        raise NotImplementedError()
+
+class ServerLoop(object):
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        handler,
+        bind_address=('localhost', 8080),
+        opts=None,
+        # A calibre logging object. If None, a default log that logs to
+        # stdout is used
+        log=None
+    ):
+        self.ready = False
+        self.handler = handler
+        self.opts = opts or Options()
+        self.log = log or ThreadSafeLog(level=ThreadSafeLog.DEBUG)
+
+        ba = tuple(bind_address)
+        if not ba[0]:
+            # AI_PASSIVE does not work with host of '' or None
+            ba = ('0.0.0.0', ba[1])
+        self.bind_address = ba
+        self.bound_address = None
+
+        self.ssl_context = None
+        if self.opts.ssl_certfile is not None and self.opts.ssl_keyfile is not None:
+            self.ssl_context = ssl.create_default_context(ssl.Purpose.CLIENT_AUTH)
+            self.ssl_context.load_cert_chain(certfile=self.opts.ssl_certfile, keyfile=self.opts.ssl_keyfile)
+
+        self.pre_activated_socket = None
+        if self.opts.allow_socket_preallocation:
+            from calibre.srv.pre_activated import pre_activated_socket
+            self.pre_activated_socket = pre_activated_socket()
+            if self.pre_activated_socket is not None:
+                set_socket_inherit(self.pre_activated_socket, False)
+                self.bind_address = self.pre_activated_socket.getsockname()
+
+    def __str__(self):
+        return "%s(%r)" % (self.__class__.__name__, self.bind_address)
+    __repr__ = __str__
+
+    def serve_forever(self):
+        """ Listen for incoming connections. """
+
+        if self.pre_activated_socket is None:
+            # AF_INET or AF_INET6 socket
+            # Get the correct address family for our host (allows IPv6
+            # addresses)
+            host, port = self.bind_address
+            try:
+                info = socket.getaddrinfo(
+                    host, port, socket.AF_UNSPEC,
+                    socket.SOCK_STREAM, 0, socket.AI_PASSIVE)
+            except socket.gaierror:
+                if ':' in host:
+                    info = [(socket.AF_INET6, socket.SOCK_STREAM,
+                            0, "", self.bind_address + (0, 0))]
+                else:
+                    info = [(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM,
+                            0, "", self.bind_address)]
+
+            self.socket = None
+            msg = "No socket could be created"
+            for res in info:
+                af, socktype, proto, canonname, sa = res
+                try:
+                    self.bind(af, socktype, proto)
+                except socket.error, serr:
+                    msg = "%s -- (%s: %s)" % (msg, sa, serr)
+                    if self.socket:
+                        self.socket.close()
+                    self.socket = None
+                    continue
+                break
+            if not self.socket:
+                raise socket.error(msg)
+        else:
+            self.socket = self.pre_activated_socket
+            self.pre_activated_socket = None
+            self.setup_socket()
+
+        self.ready = True
+        self.connection_map = {}
+        self.socket.listen(5)
+        self.bound_address = ba = self.socket.getsockname()
+        if isinstance(ba, tuple):
+            ba = ':'.join(map(type(''), ba))
+        self.log('calibre server listening on', ba)
+
+        while True:
+            try:
+                self.tick()
+            except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit):
+                self.shutdown()
+                break
+            except:
+                self.log.exception('Error in ServerLoop.tick')
+
+    def setup_socket(self):
+        self.socket.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
+        if self.opts.no_delay and not isinstance(self.bind_address, basestring):
+            self.socket.setsockopt(socket.IPPROTO_TCP, socket.TCP_NODELAY, 1)
+
+        # If listening on the IPV6 any address ('::' = IN6ADDR_ANY),
+        # activate dual-stack.
+        if (hasattr(socket, 'AF_INET6') and self.socket.family == socket.AF_INET6 and
+                self.bind_address[0] in ('::', '::0', '::0.0.0.0')):
+            try:
+                self.socket.setsockopt(
+                    socket.IPPROTO_IPV6, socket.IPV6_V6ONLY, 0)
+            except (AttributeError, socket.error):
+                # Apparently, the socket option is not available in
+                # this machine's TCP stack
+                pass
+        self.socket.setblocking(0)
+
+    def bind(self, family, atype, proto=0):
+        '''Create (or recreate) the actual socket object.'''
+        self.socket = socket.socket(family, atype, proto)
+        set_socket_inherit(self.socket, False)
+        self.setup_socket()
+        self.socket.bind(self.bind_address)
+
+    def tick(self):
+        now = monotonic()
+        for s, conn in tuple(self.connection_map.iteritems()):
+            if now - conn.last_activity > self.opts.timeout:
+                self.log.debug('Closing connection because of extended inactivity')
+                self.close(s, conn)
+
+        read_needed = [c.socket for c in self.connection_map.itervalues() if c.wait_for is READ or c.wait_for is RDWR]
+        write_needed = [c.socket for c in self.connection_map.itervalues() if c.wait_for is WRITE or c.wait_for is RDWR]
+        readable, writable = select.select([self.socket] + read_needed, write_needed, [], self.opts.timeout)[:2]
+        if not self.ready:
+            return
+
+        for s, conn, event in self.get_actions(readable, writable):
+            try:
+                conn.handle_event(event)
+                if not conn.ready:
+                    self.close(s, conn)
+            except Exception as e:
+                if conn.ready:
+                    self.log.exception('Unhandled exception, terminating connection')
+                else:
+                    self.log.error('Error in SSL handshake, terminating connection: %s' % as_unicode(e))
+                self.close(s, conn)
+
+    def wakeup(self):
+        # Touch our own socket to make select() return immediately.
+        sock = getattr(self, "socket", None)
+        if sock is not None:
+            try:
+                host, port = sock.getsockname()[:2]
+            except socket.error as e:
+                if e.errno not in socket_errors_socket_closed:
+                    raise
+            else:
+                for res in socket.getaddrinfo(host, port, socket.AF_UNSPEC,
+                                                socket.SOCK_STREAM):
+                    af, socktype, proto, canonname, sa = res
+                    s = None
+                    try:
+                        s = socket.socket(af, socktype, proto)
+                        s.settimeout(1.0)
+                        s.connect((host, port))
+                        s.close()
+                    except socket.error:
+                        if s is not None:
+                            s.close()
+        return sock
+
+    def close(self, s, conn):
+        self.connection_map.pop(s, None)
+        conn.close()
+
+    def get_actions(self, readable, writable):
+        for s in readable:
+            if s is self.socket:
+                s, addr = self.accept()
+                if s is not None:
+                    self.connection_map[s] = conn = self.handler(s, self.opts, self.ssl_context)
+                    if self.ssl_context is not None:
+                        yield s, conn, RDWR
+            else:
+                yield s, self.connection_map[s], READ
+        for s in writable:
+            yield s, self.connection_map[s], WRITE
+
+    def accept(self):
+        try:
+            return self.socket.accept()
+        except socket.error:
+            return None, None
+
+    def stop(self):
+        self.ready = False
+        self.wakeup()
+
+    def shutdown(self):
+        try:
+            if getattr(self, 'socket', None):
+                self.socket.close()
+                self.socket = None
+        except socket.error:
+            pass
+        for s, conn in tuple(self.connection_map.iteritems()):
+            self.close(s, conn)
+
+class EchoLine(Connection):
+
+    bye_after_echo = False
+
+    def connection_ready(self):
+        self.rbuf = BytesIO()
+        self.set_state(READ, self.read_line)
+
+    def read_line(self, event):
+        data = self.recv(1)
+        if data:
+            self.rbuf.write(data)
+            if b'\n' == data:
+                if self.rbuf.tell() < 3:
+                    # Empty line
+                    self.rbuf = BytesIO(b'bye' + self.rbuf.getvalue())
+                    self.bye_after_echo = True
+                self.set_state(WRITE, self.echo)
+                self.rbuf.seek(0)
+
+    def echo(self, event):
+        pos = self.rbuf.tell()
+        self.rbuf.seek(0, os.SEEK_END)
+        left = self.rbuf.tell() - pos
+        self.rbuf.seek(pos)
+        sent = self.send(self.rbuf.read(512))
+        if sent == left:
+            self.rbuf = BytesIO()
+            self.set_state(READ, self.read_line)
+            if self.bye_after_echo:
+                self.ready = False
+        else:
+            self.rbuf.seek(pos + sent)
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    ServerLoop(EchoLine).serve_forever()
diff --git a/src/calibre/srv/opts.py b/src/calibre/srv/opts.py
index 8734e04764..482564f2cd 100644
--- a/src/calibre/srv/opts.py
+++ b/src/calibre/srv/opts.py
@@ -28,10 +28,6 @@ raw_options = (
     'ssl_keyfile', None,
     None,
 
-    'Max. queued connections while waiting to accept',
-    'request_queue_size', 5,
-    None,
-
     'Time (in seconds) after which an idle connection is closed',
     'timeout', 60.0,
     None,