diff --git a/Documentation/watchdog/watchdog-api.txt b/Documentation/watchdog/watchdog-api.txt
index 21ed5117366..7dc2c1c6f77 100644
--- a/Documentation/watchdog/watchdog-api.txt
+++ b/Documentation/watchdog/watchdog-api.txt
@@ -110,7 +110,31 @@ current timeout using the GETTIMEOUT ioctl.
     ioctl(fd, WDIOC_GETTIMEOUT, &timeout);
     printf("The timeout was is %d seconds\n", timeout);
 
-Envinronmental monitoring:
+Pretimeouts:
+
+Some watchdog timers can be set to have a trigger go off before the
+actual time they will reset the system.  This can be done with an NMI,
+interrupt, or other mechanism.  This allows Linux to record useful
+information (like panic information and kernel coredumps) before it
+resets.
+
+    pretimeout = 10;
+    ioctl(fd, WDIOC_SETPRETIMEOUT, &pretimeout);
+
+Note that the pretimeout is the number of seconds before the time
+when the timeout will go off.  It is not the number of seconds until
+the pretimeout.  So, for instance, if you set the timeout to 60 seconds
+and the pretimeout to 10 seconds, the pretimout will go of in 50
+seconds.  Setting a pretimeout to zero disables it.
+
+There is also a get function for getting the pretimeout:
+
+    ioctl(fd, WDIOC_GETPRETIMEOUT, &timeout);
+    printf("The pretimeout was is %d seconds\n", timeout);
+
+Not all watchdog drivers will support a pretimeout.
+
+Environmental monitoring:
 
 All watchdog drivers are required return more information about the system,
 some do temperature, fan and power level monitoring, some can tell you
@@ -169,6 +193,10 @@ The watchdog saw a keepalive ping since it was last queried.
 
 	WDIOF_SETTIMEOUT	Can set/get the timeout
 
+The watchdog can do pretimeouts.
+
+	WDIOF_PRETIMEOUT	Pretimeout (in seconds), get/set
+
 
 For those drivers that return any bits set in the option field, the
 GETSTATUS and GETBOOTSTATUS ioctls can be used to ask for the current
diff --git a/include/linux/watchdog.h b/include/linux/watchdog.h
index 1192ed8f4fe..a99c937f665 100644
--- a/include/linux/watchdog.h
+++ b/include/linux/watchdog.h
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ struct watchdog_info {
 #define	WDIOC_KEEPALIVE		_IOR(WATCHDOG_IOCTL_BASE, 5, int)
 #define	WDIOC_SETTIMEOUT        _IOWR(WATCHDOG_IOCTL_BASE, 6, int)
 #define	WDIOC_GETTIMEOUT        _IOR(WATCHDOG_IOCTL_BASE, 7, int)
+#define	WDIOC_SETPRETIMEOUT	_IOWR(WATCHDOG_IOCTL_BASE, 8, int)
+#define	WDIOC_GETPRETIMEOUT	_IOR(WATCHDOG_IOCTL_BASE, 9, int)
 
 #define	WDIOF_UNKNOWN		-1	/* Unknown flag error */
 #define	WDIOS_UNKNOWN		-1	/* Unknown status error */
@@ -41,6 +43,7 @@ struct watchdog_info {
 #define WDIOF_POWEROVER		0x0040	/* Power over voltage */
 #define WDIOF_SETTIMEOUT	0x0080  /* Set timeout (in seconds) */
 #define WDIOF_MAGICCLOSE	0x0100	/* Supports magic close char */
+#define	WDIOF_PRETIMEOUT	0x0200  /* Pretimeout (in seconds), get/set */
 #define	WDIOF_KEEPALIVEPING	0x8000	/* Keep alive ping reply */
 
 #define	WDIOS_DISABLECARD	0x0001	/* Turn off the watchdog timer */