diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index ea1721d0..94f98565 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *SVN*
 
+* Add a "capture" helper, for capturing the stdout of a remote command and returning it as a string [Jamis Buck]
+
 * Add a "get" helper, to pull a file from a remote server to the localhost [bmihelac]
 
 * Fix gateway to actually increment local_port if a port is in use, so that multiple capistrano instances can run at the same time [Mark Imbriaco]
diff --git a/lib/capistrano/actor.rb b/lib/capistrano/actor.rb
index ae391eb5..3206539b 100644
--- a/lib/capistrano/actor.rb
+++ b/lib/capistrano/actor.rb
@@ -290,6 +290,19 @@ module Capistrano
       end
     end
 
+    # Executes the given command on the first server targetted by the current
+    # task, collects it's stdout into a string, and returns the string.
+    def capture(command, options={})
+      output = ""
+      run(command, options.merge(:once => true)) do |ch, stream, data|
+        case stream
+        when :out then output << data
+        when :err then raise "error processing #{command.inspect}: #{data.inspect}"
+        end
+      end
+      output
+    end
+
     # Like #run, but executes the command via <tt>sudo</tt>. This assumes that
     # the sudo password (if required) is the same as the password for logging
     # in to the server.