diff --git a/openstack-common.conf b/openstack-common.conf
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6aef1eb42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/openstack-common.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+[DEFAULT]
+
+# The list of modules to copy from oslo-incubator.git
+module=excutils
+module=log
+
+# The base module to hold the copy of openstack.common
+base=taskflow
+
diff --git a/taskflow/openstack/__init__.py b/taskflow/openstack/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e69de29bb
diff --git a/taskflow/openstack/common/__init__.py b/taskflow/openstack/common/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e69de29bb
diff --git a/taskflow/openstack/common/excutils.py b/taskflow/openstack/common/excutils.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9edeb58a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/taskflow/openstack/common/excutils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+# vim: tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 softtabstop=4
+
+# Copyright 2011 OpenStack Foundation.
+# Copyright 2012, Red Hat, Inc.
+#
+#    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+#    not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+#    a copy of the License at
+#
+#         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+#    WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+#    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+#    under the License.
+
+"""
+Exception related utilities.
+"""
+
+import contextlib
+import logging
+import sys
+import traceback
+
+from taskflow.openstack.common.gettextutils import _
+
+
+@contextlib.contextmanager
+def save_and_reraise_exception():
+    """Save current exception, run some code and then re-raise.
+
+    In some cases the exception context can be cleared, resulting in None
+    being attempted to be re-raised after an exception handler is run. This
+    can happen when eventlet switches greenthreads or when running an
+    exception handler, code raises and catches an exception. In both
+    cases the exception context will be cleared.
+
+    To work around this, we save the exception state, run handler code, and
+    then re-raise the original exception. If another exception occurs, the
+    saved exception is logged and the new exception is re-raised.
+    """
+    type_, value, tb = sys.exc_info()
+    try:
+        yield
+    except Exception:
+        logging.error(_('Original exception being dropped: %s'),
+                      traceback.format_exception(type_, value, tb))
+        raise
+    raise type_, value, tb
diff --git a/taskflow/openstack/common/gettextutils.py b/taskflow/openstack/common/gettextutils.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e1a35bf85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/taskflow/openstack/common/gettextutils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+# vim: tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 softtabstop=4
+
+# Copyright 2012 Red Hat, Inc.
+# All Rights Reserved.
+#
+#    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+#    not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+#    a copy of the License at
+#
+#         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+#    WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+#    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+#    under the License.
+
+"""
+gettext for openstack-common modules.
+
+Usual usage in an openstack.common module:
+
+    from taskflow.openstack.common.gettextutils import _
+"""
+
+import gettext
+import os
+
+_localedir = os.environ.get('taskflow'.upper() + '_LOCALEDIR')
+_t = gettext.translation('taskflow', localedir=_localedir, fallback=True)
+
+
+def _(msg):
+    return _t.ugettext(msg)
+
+
+def install(domain):
+    """Install a _() function using the given translation domain.
+
+    Given a translation domain, install a _() function using gettext's
+    install() function.
+
+    The main difference from gettext.install() is that we allow
+    overriding the default localedir (e.g. /usr/share/locale) using
+    a translation-domain-specific environment variable (e.g.
+    NOVA_LOCALEDIR).
+    """
+    gettext.install(domain,
+                    localedir=os.environ.get(domain.upper() + '_LOCALEDIR'),
+                    unicode=True)