diff --git a/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/gettextutils.py b/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/gettextutils.py
index ec432f4ef..70c6080d6 100644
--- a/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/gettextutils.py
+++ b/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/gettextutils.py
@@ -19,29 +19,126 @@ gettext for openstack-common modules.
 
 Usual usage in an openstack.common module:
 
-    from oslo.messaging.openstack.common.gettextutils import _  # noqa
+    from oslo.messaging.openstack.common.gettextutils import _
 """
 
 import copy
+import functools
 import gettext
-import logging
+import locale
+from logging import handlers
 import os
-import re
-try:
-    import UserString as _userString
-except ImportError:
-    import collections as _userString
 
 from babel import localedata
 import six
 
-_localedir = os.environ.get('oslo.messaging'.upper() + '_LOCALEDIR')
-_t = gettext.translation('oslo.messaging', localedir=_localedir, fallback=True)
-
 _AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES = {}
+
+# FIXME(dhellmann): Remove this when moving to oslo.i18n.
 USE_LAZY = False
 
 
+class TranslatorFactory(object):
+    """Create translator functions
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, domain, lazy=False, localedir=None):
+        """Establish a set of translation functions for the domain.
+
+        :param domain: Name of translation domain,
+                       specifying a message catalog.
+        :type domain: str
+        :param lazy: Delays translation until a message is emitted.
+                     Defaults to False.
+        :type lazy: Boolean
+        :param localedir: Directory with translation catalogs.
+        :type localedir: str
+        """
+        self.domain = domain
+        self.lazy = lazy
+        if localedir is None:
+            localedir = os.environ.get(domain.upper() + '_LOCALEDIR')
+        self.localedir = localedir
+
+    def _make_translation_func(self, domain=None):
+        """Return a new translation function ready for use.
+
+        Takes into account whether or not lazy translation is being
+        done.
+
+        The domain can be specified to override the default from the
+        factory, but the localedir from the factory is always used
+        because we assume the log-level translation catalogs are
+        installed in the same directory as the main application
+        catalog.
+
+        """
+        if domain is None:
+            domain = self.domain
+        if self.lazy:
+            return functools.partial(Message, domain=domain)
+        t = gettext.translation(
+            domain,
+            localedir=self.localedir,
+            fallback=True,
+        )
+        if six.PY3:
+            return t.gettext
+        return t.ugettext
+
+    @property
+    def primary(self):
+        "The default translation function."
+        return self._make_translation_func()
+
+    def _make_log_translation_func(self, level):
+        return self._make_translation_func(self.domain + '-log-' + level)
+
+    @property
+    def log_info(self):
+        "Translate info-level log messages."
+        return self._make_log_translation_func('info')
+
+    @property
+    def log_warning(self):
+        "Translate warning-level log messages."
+        return self._make_log_translation_func('warning')
+
+    @property
+    def log_error(self):
+        "Translate error-level log messages."
+        return self._make_log_translation_func('error')
+
+    @property
+    def log_critical(self):
+        "Translate critical-level log messages."
+        return self._make_log_translation_func('critical')
+
+
+# NOTE(dhellmann): When this module moves out of the incubator into
+# oslo.i18n, these global variables can be moved to an integration
+# module within each application.
+
+# Create the global translation functions.
+_translators = TranslatorFactory('oslo.messaging')
+
+# The primary translation function using the well-known name "_"
+_ = _translators.primary
+
+# Translators for log levels.
+#
+# The abbreviated names are meant to reflect the usual use of a short
+# name like '_'. The "L" is for "log" and the other letter comes from
+# the level.
+_LI = _translators.log_info
+_LW = _translators.log_warning
+_LE = _translators.log_error
+_LC = _translators.log_critical
+
+# NOTE(dhellmann): End of globals that will move to the application's
+# integration module.
+
+
 def enable_lazy():
     """Convenience function for configuring _() to use lazy gettext
 
@@ -50,19 +147,18 @@ def enable_lazy():
     your project is importing _ directly instead of using the
     gettextutils.install() way of importing the _ function.
     """
-    global USE_LAZY
+    # FIXME(dhellmann): This function will be removed in oslo.i18n,
+    # because the TranslatorFactory makes it superfluous.
+    global _, _LI, _LW, _LE, _LC, USE_LAZY
+    tf = TranslatorFactory('oslo.messaging', lazy=True)
+    _ = tf.primary
+    _LI = tf.log_info
+    _LW = tf.log_warning
+    _LE = tf.log_error
+    _LC = tf.log_critical
     USE_LAZY = True
 
 
-def _(msg):
-    if USE_LAZY:
-        return Message(msg, 'oslo.messaging')
-    else:
-        if six.PY3:
-            return _t.gettext(msg)
-        return _t.ugettext(msg)
-
-
 def install(domain, lazy=False):
     """Install a _() function using the given translation domain.
 
@@ -82,31 +178,9 @@ def install(domain, lazy=False):
                  any available locale.
     """
     if lazy:
-        # NOTE(mrodden): Lazy gettext functionality.
-        #
-        # The following introduces a deferred way to do translations on
-        # messages in OpenStack. We override the standard _() function
-        # and % (format string) operation to build Message objects that can
-        # later be translated when we have more information.
-        #
-        # Also included below is an example LocaleHandler that translates
-        # Messages to an associated locale, effectively allowing many logs,
-        # each with their own locale.
-
-        def _lazy_gettext(msg):
-            """Create and return a Message object.
-
-            Lazy gettext function for a given domain, it is a factory method
-            for a project/module to get a lazy gettext function for its own
-            translation domain (i.e. nova, glance, cinder, etc.)
-
-            Message encapsulates a string so that we can translate
-            it later when needed.
-            """
-            return Message(msg, domain)
-
         from six import moves
-        moves.builtins.__dict__['_'] = _lazy_gettext
+        tf = TranslatorFactory(domain, lazy=True)
+        moves.builtins.__dict__['_'] = tf.primary
     else:
         localedir = '%s_LOCALEDIR' % domain.upper()
         if six.PY3:
@@ -118,182 +192,145 @@ def install(domain, lazy=False):
                             unicode=True)
 
 
-class Message(_userString.UserString, object):
-    """Class used to encapsulate translatable messages."""
-    def __init__(self, msg, domain):
-        # _msg is the gettext msgid and should never change
-        self._msg = msg
-        self._left_extra_msg = ''
-        self._right_extra_msg = ''
-        self._locale = None
-        self.params = None
-        self.domain = domain
+class Message(six.text_type):
+    """A Message object is a unicode object that can be translated.
 
-    @property
-    def data(self):
-        # NOTE(mrodden): this should always resolve to a unicode string
-        # that best represents the state of the message currently
+    Translation of Message is done explicitly using the translate() method.
+    For all non-translation intents and purposes, a Message is simply unicode,
+    and can be treated as such.
+    """
 
-        localedir = os.environ.get(self.domain.upper() + '_LOCALEDIR')
-        if self.locale:
-            lang = gettext.translation(self.domain,
-                                       localedir=localedir,
-                                       languages=[self.locale],
-                                       fallback=True)
-        else:
-            # use system locale for translations
-            lang = gettext.translation(self.domain,
-                                       localedir=localedir,
-                                       fallback=True)
+    def __new__(cls, msgid, msgtext=None, params=None,
+                domain='oslo.messaging', *args):
+        """Create a new Message object.
 
+        In order for translation to work gettext requires a message ID, this
+        msgid will be used as the base unicode text. It is also possible
+        for the msgid and the base unicode text to be different by passing
+        the msgtext parameter.
+        """
+        # If the base msgtext is not given, we use the default translation
+        # of the msgid (which is in English) just in case the system locale is
+        # not English, so that the base text will be in that locale by default.
+        if not msgtext:
+            msgtext = Message._translate_msgid(msgid, domain)
+        # We want to initialize the parent unicode with the actual object that
+        # would have been plain unicode if 'Message' was not enabled.
+        msg = super(Message, cls).__new__(cls, msgtext)
+        msg.msgid = msgid
+        msg.domain = domain
+        msg.params = params
+        return msg
+
+    def translate(self, desired_locale=None):
+        """Translate this message to the desired locale.
+
+        :param desired_locale: The desired locale to translate the message to,
+                               if no locale is provided the message will be
+                               translated to the system's default locale.
+
+        :returns: the translated message in unicode
+        """
+
+        translated_message = Message._translate_msgid(self.msgid,
+                                                      self.domain,
+                                                      desired_locale)
+        if self.params is None:
+            # No need for more translation
+            return translated_message
+
+        # This Message object may have been formatted with one or more
+        # Message objects as substitution arguments, given either as a single
+        # argument, part of a tuple, or as one or more values in a dictionary.
+        # When translating this Message we need to translate those Messages too
+        translated_params = _translate_args(self.params, desired_locale)
+
+        translated_message = translated_message % translated_params
+
+        return translated_message
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def _translate_msgid(msgid, domain, desired_locale=None):
+        if not desired_locale:
+            system_locale = locale.getdefaultlocale()
+            # If the system locale is not available to the runtime use English
+            if not system_locale[0]:
+                desired_locale = 'en_US'
+            else:
+                desired_locale = system_locale[0]
+
+        locale_dir = os.environ.get(domain.upper() + '_LOCALEDIR')
+        lang = gettext.translation(domain,
+                                   localedir=locale_dir,
+                                   languages=[desired_locale],
+                                   fallback=True)
         if six.PY3:
-            ugettext = lang.gettext
+            translator = lang.gettext
         else:
-            ugettext = lang.ugettext
+            translator = lang.ugettext
 
-        full_msg = (self._left_extra_msg +
-                    ugettext(self._msg) +
-                    self._right_extra_msg)
-
-        if self.params is not None:
-            full_msg = full_msg % self.params
-
-        return six.text_type(full_msg)
-
-    @property
-    def locale(self):
-        return self._locale
-
-    @locale.setter
-    def locale(self, value):
-        self._locale = value
-        if not self.params:
-            return
-
-        # This Message object may have been constructed with one or more
-        # Message objects as substitution parameters, given as a single
-        # Message, or a tuple or Map containing some, so when setting the
-        # locale for this Message we need to set it for those Messages too.
-        if isinstance(self.params, Message):
-            self.params.locale = value
-            return
-        if isinstance(self.params, tuple):
-            for param in self.params:
-                if isinstance(param, Message):
-                    param.locale = value
-            return
-        if isinstance(self.params, dict):
-            for param in self.params.values():
-                if isinstance(param, Message):
-                    param.locale = value
-
-    def _save_dictionary_parameter(self, dict_param):
-        full_msg = self.data
-        # look for %(blah) fields in string;
-        # ignore %% and deal with the
-        # case where % is first character on the line
-        keys = re.findall('(?:[^%]|^)?%\((\w*)\)[a-z]', full_msg)
-
-        # if we don't find any %(blah) blocks but have a %s
-        if not keys and re.findall('(?:[^%]|^)%[a-z]', full_msg):
-            # apparently the full dictionary is the parameter
-            params = copy.deepcopy(dict_param)
-        else:
-            params = {}
-            for key in keys:
-                try:
-                    params[key] = copy.deepcopy(dict_param[key])
-                except TypeError:
-                    # cast uncopyable thing to unicode string
-                    params[key] = six.text_type(dict_param[key])
-
-        return params
-
-    def _save_parameters(self, other):
-        # we check for None later to see if
-        # we actually have parameters to inject,
-        # so encapsulate if our parameter is actually None
-        if other is None:
-            self.params = (other, )
-        elif isinstance(other, dict):
-            self.params = self._save_dictionary_parameter(other)
-        else:
-            # fallback to casting to unicode,
-            # this will handle the problematic python code-like
-            # objects that cannot be deep-copied
-            try:
-                self.params = copy.deepcopy(other)
-            except TypeError:
-                self.params = six.text_type(other)
-
-        return self
-
-    # overrides to be more string-like
-    def __unicode__(self):
-        return self.data
-
-    def __str__(self):
-        if six.PY3:
-            return self.__unicode__()
-        return self.data.encode('utf-8')
-
-    def __getstate__(self):
-        to_copy = ['_msg', '_right_extra_msg', '_left_extra_msg',
-                   'domain', 'params', '_locale']
-        new_dict = self.__dict__.fromkeys(to_copy)
-        for attr in to_copy:
-            new_dict[attr] = copy.deepcopy(self.__dict__[attr])
-
-        return new_dict
-
-    def __setstate__(self, state):
-        for (k, v) in state.items():
-            setattr(self, k, v)
-
-    # operator overloads
-    def __add__(self, other):
-        copied = copy.deepcopy(self)
-        copied._right_extra_msg += other.__str__()
-        return copied
-
-    def __radd__(self, other):
-        copied = copy.deepcopy(self)
-        copied._left_extra_msg += other.__str__()
-        return copied
+        translated_message = translator(msgid)
+        return translated_message
 
     def __mod__(self, other):
-        # do a format string to catch and raise
-        # any possible KeyErrors from missing parameters
-        self.data % other
-        copied = copy.deepcopy(self)
-        return copied._save_parameters(other)
+        # When we mod a Message we want the actual operation to be performed
+        # by the parent class (i.e. unicode()), the only thing  we do here is
+        # save the original msgid and the parameters in case of a translation
+        params = self._sanitize_mod_params(other)
+        unicode_mod = super(Message, self).__mod__(params)
+        modded = Message(self.msgid,
+                         msgtext=unicode_mod,
+                         params=params,
+                         domain=self.domain)
+        return modded
 
-    def __mul__(self, other):
-        return self.data * other
+    def _sanitize_mod_params(self, other):
+        """Sanitize the object being modded with this Message.
 
-    def __rmul__(self, other):
-        return other * self.data
-
-    def __getitem__(self, key):
-        return self.data[key]
-
-    def __getslice__(self, start, end):
-        return self.data.__getslice__(start, end)
-
-    def __getattribute__(self, name):
-        # NOTE(mrodden): handle lossy operations that we can't deal with yet
-        # These override the UserString implementation, since UserString
-        # uses our __class__ attribute to try and build a new message
-        # after running the inner data string through the operation.
-        # At that point, we have lost the gettext message id and can just
-        # safely resolve to a string instead.
-        ops = ['capitalize', 'center', 'decode', 'encode',
-               'expandtabs', 'ljust', 'lstrip', 'replace', 'rjust', 'rstrip',
-               'strip', 'swapcase', 'title', 'translate', 'upper', 'zfill']
-        if name in ops:
-            return getattr(self.data, name)
+        - Add support for modding 'None' so translation supports it
+        - Trim the modded object, which can be a large dictionary, to only
+        those keys that would actually be used in a translation
+        - Snapshot the object being modded, in case the message is
+        translated, it will be used as it was when the Message was created
+        """
+        if other is None:
+            params = (other,)
+        elif isinstance(other, dict):
+            # Merge the dictionaries
+            # Copy each item in case one does not support deep copy.
+            params = {}
+            if isinstance(self.params, dict):
+                for key, val in self.params.items():
+                    params[key] = self._copy_param(val)
+            for key, val in other.items():
+                params[key] = self._copy_param(val)
         else:
-            return _userString.UserString.__getattribute__(self, name)
+            params = self._copy_param(other)
+        return params
+
+    def _copy_param(self, param):
+        try:
+            return copy.deepcopy(param)
+        except Exception:
+            # Fallback to casting to unicode this will handle the
+            # python code-like objects that can't be deep-copied
+            return six.text_type(param)
+
+    def __add__(self, other):
+        msg = _('Message objects do not support addition.')
+        raise TypeError(msg)
+
+    def __radd__(self, other):
+        return self.__add__(other)
+
+    if six.PY2:
+        def __str__(self):
+            # NOTE(luisg): Logging in python 2.6 tries to str() log records,
+            # and it expects specifically a UnicodeError in order to proceed.
+            msg = _('Message objects do not support str() because they may '
+                    'contain non-ascii characters. '
+                    'Please use unicode() or translate() instead.')
+            raise UnicodeError(msg)
 
 
 def get_available_languages(domain):
@@ -319,53 +356,143 @@ def get_available_languages(domain):
     list_identifiers = (getattr(localedata, 'list', None) or
                         getattr(localedata, 'locale_identifiers'))
     locale_identifiers = list_identifiers()
+
     for i in locale_identifiers:
         if find(i) is not None:
             language_list.append(i)
+
+    # NOTE(luisg): Babel>=1.0,<1.3 has a bug where some OpenStack supported
+    # locales (e.g. 'zh_CN', and 'zh_TW') aren't supported even though they
+    # are perfectly legitimate locales:
+    #     https://github.com/mitsuhiko/babel/issues/37
+    # In Babel 1.3 they fixed the bug and they support these locales, but
+    # they are still not explicitly "listed" by locale_identifiers().
+    # That is  why we add the locales here explicitly if necessary so that
+    # they are listed as supported.
+    aliases = {'zh': 'zh_CN',
+               'zh_Hant_HK': 'zh_HK',
+               'zh_Hant': 'zh_TW',
+               'fil': 'tl_PH'}
+    for (locale_, alias) in six.iteritems(aliases):
+        if locale_ in language_list and alias not in language_list:
+            language_list.append(alias)
+
     _AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES[domain] = language_list
     return copy.copy(language_list)
 
 
-def get_localized_message(message, user_locale):
-    """Gets a localized version of the given message in the given locale.
+def translate(obj, desired_locale=None):
+    """Gets the translated unicode representation of the given object.
 
-    If the message is not a Message object the message is returned as-is.
-    If the locale is None the message is translated to the default locale.
+    If the object is not translatable it is returned as-is.
+    If the locale is None the object is translated to the system locale.
 
-    :returns: the translated message in unicode, or the original message if
+    :param obj: the object to translate
+    :param desired_locale: the locale to translate the message to, if None the
+                           default system locale will be used
+    :returns: the translated object in unicode, or the original object if
               it could not be translated
     """
-    translated = message
+    message = obj
+    if not isinstance(message, Message):
+        # If the object to translate is not already translatable,
+        # let's first get its unicode representation
+        message = six.text_type(obj)
     if isinstance(message, Message):
-        original_locale = message.locale
-        message.locale = user_locale
-        translated = six.text_type(message)
-        message.locale = original_locale
-    return translated
+        # Even after unicoding() we still need to check if we are
+        # running with translatable unicode before translating
+        return message.translate(desired_locale)
+    return obj
 
 
-class LocaleHandler(logging.Handler):
-    """Handler that can have a locale associated to translate Messages.
+def _translate_args(args, desired_locale=None):
+    """Translates all the translatable elements of the given arguments object.
 
-    A quick example of how to utilize the Message class above.
-    LocaleHandler takes a locale and a target logging.Handler object
-    to forward LogRecord objects to after translating the internal Message.
+    This method is used for translating the translatable values in method
+    arguments which include values of tuples or dictionaries.
+    If the object is not a tuple or a dictionary the object itself is
+    translated if it is translatable.
+
+    If the locale is None the object is translated to the system locale.
+
+    :param args: the args to translate
+    :param desired_locale: the locale to translate the args to, if None the
+                           default system locale will be used
+    :returns: a new args object with the translated contents of the original
+    """
+    if isinstance(args, tuple):
+        return tuple(translate(v, desired_locale) for v in args)
+    if isinstance(args, dict):
+        translated_dict = {}
+        for (k, v) in six.iteritems(args):
+            translated_v = translate(v, desired_locale)
+            translated_dict[k] = translated_v
+        return translated_dict
+    return translate(args, desired_locale)
+
+
+class TranslationHandler(handlers.MemoryHandler):
+    """Handler that translates records before logging them.
+
+    The TranslationHandler takes a locale and a target logging.Handler object
+    to forward LogRecord objects to after translating them. This handler
+    depends on Message objects being logged, instead of regular strings.
+
+    The handler can be configured declaratively in the logging.conf as follows:
+
+        [handlers]
+        keys = translatedlog, translator
+
+        [handler_translatedlog]
+        class = handlers.WatchedFileHandler
+        args = ('/var/log/api-localized.log',)
+        formatter = context
+
+        [handler_translator]
+        class = openstack.common.log.TranslationHandler
+        target = translatedlog
+        args = ('zh_CN',)
+
+    If the specified locale is not available in the system, the handler will
+    log in the default locale.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, locale, target):
-        """Initialize a LocaleHandler
+    def __init__(self, locale=None, target=None):
+        """Initialize a TranslationHandler
 
         :param locale: locale to use for translating messages
         :param target: logging.Handler object to forward
                        LogRecord objects to after translation
         """
-        logging.Handler.__init__(self)
+        # NOTE(luisg): In order to allow this handler to be a wrapper for
+        # other handlers, such as a FileHandler, and still be able to
+        # configure it using logging.conf, this handler has to extend
+        # MemoryHandler because only the MemoryHandlers' logging.conf
+        # parsing is implemented such that it accepts a target handler.
+        handlers.MemoryHandler.__init__(self, capacity=0, target=target)
         self.locale = locale
-        self.target = target
+
+    def setFormatter(self, fmt):
+        self.target.setFormatter(fmt)
 
     def emit(self, record):
-        if isinstance(record.msg, Message):
-            # set the locale and resolve to a string
-            record.msg.locale = self.locale
+        # We save the message from the original record to restore it
+        # after translation, so other handlers are not affected by this
+        original_msg = record.msg
+        original_args = record.args
+
+        try:
+            self._translate_and_log_record(record)
+        finally:
+            record.msg = original_msg
+            record.args = original_args
+
+    def _translate_and_log_record(self, record):
+        record.msg = translate(record.msg, self.locale)
+
+        # In addition to translating the message, we also need to translate
+        # arguments that were passed to the log method that were not part
+        # of the main message e.g., log.info(_('Some message %s'), this_one))
+        record.args = _translate_args(record.args, self.locale)
 
         self.target.emit(record)
diff --git a/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/importutils.py b/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/importutils.py
index 4fd9ae2bc..f19535482 100644
--- a/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/importutils.py
+++ b/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/importutils.py
@@ -24,10 +24,10 @@ import traceback
 def import_class(import_str):
     """Returns a class from a string including module and class."""
     mod_str, _sep, class_str = import_str.rpartition('.')
+    __import__(mod_str)
     try:
-        __import__(mod_str)
         return getattr(sys.modules[mod_str], class_str)
-    except (ValueError, AttributeError):
+    except AttributeError:
         raise ImportError('Class %s cannot be found (%s)' %
                           (class_str,
                            traceback.format_exception(*sys.exc_info())))
@@ -58,6 +58,13 @@ def import_module(import_str):
     return sys.modules[import_str]
 
 
+def import_versioned_module(version, submodule=None):
+    module = 'oslo.messaging.v%s' % version
+    if submodule:
+        module = '.'.join((module, submodule))
+    return import_module(module)
+
+
 def try_import(import_str, default=None):
     """Try to import a module and if it fails return default."""
     try:
diff --git a/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/jsonutils.py b/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/jsonutils.py
index 72cc2ee28..971a2286b 100644
--- a/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/jsonutils.py
+++ b/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/jsonutils.py
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ This module provides a few things:
 '''
 
 
+import codecs
 import datetime
 import functools
 import inspect
@@ -52,6 +53,7 @@ import six.moves.xmlrpc_client as xmlrpclib
 
 from oslo.messaging.openstack.common import gettextutils
 from oslo.messaging.openstack.common import importutils
+from oslo.messaging.openstack.common import strutils
 from oslo.messaging.openstack.common import timeutils
 
 netaddr = importutils.try_import("netaddr")
@@ -166,12 +168,12 @@ def dumps(value, default=to_primitive, **kwargs):
     return json.dumps(value, default=default, **kwargs)
 
 
-def loads(s):
-    return json.loads(s)
+def loads(s, encoding='utf-8', **kwargs):
+    return json.loads(strutils.safe_decode(s, encoding), **kwargs)
 
 
-def load(s):
-    return json.load(s)
+def load(fp, encoding='utf-8', **kwargs):
+    return json.load(codecs.getreader(encoding)(fp), **kwargs)
 
 
 try:
diff --git a/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/strutils.py b/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/strutils.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2cf4aabea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/strutils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,239 @@
+# Copyright 2011 OpenStack Foundation.
+# 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.
+
+"""
+System-level utilities and helper functions.
+"""
+
+import math
+import re
+import sys
+import unicodedata
+
+import six
+
+from oslo.messaging.openstack.common.gettextutils import _
+
+
+UNIT_PREFIX_EXPONENT = {
+    'k': 1,
+    'K': 1,
+    'Ki': 1,
+    'M': 2,
+    'Mi': 2,
+    'G': 3,
+    'Gi': 3,
+    'T': 4,
+    'Ti': 4,
+}
+UNIT_SYSTEM_INFO = {
+    'IEC': (1024, re.compile(r'(^[-+]?\d*\.?\d+)([KMGT]i?)?(b|bit|B)$')),
+    'SI': (1000, re.compile(r'(^[-+]?\d*\.?\d+)([kMGT])?(b|bit|B)$')),
+}
+
+TRUE_STRINGS = ('1', 't', 'true', 'on', 'y', 'yes')
+FALSE_STRINGS = ('0', 'f', 'false', 'off', 'n', 'no')
+
+SLUGIFY_STRIP_RE = re.compile(r"[^\w\s-]")
+SLUGIFY_HYPHENATE_RE = re.compile(r"[-\s]+")
+
+
+def int_from_bool_as_string(subject):
+    """Interpret a string as a boolean and return either 1 or 0.
+
+    Any string value in:
+
+        ('True', 'true', 'On', 'on', '1')
+
+    is interpreted as a boolean True.
+
+    Useful for JSON-decoded stuff and config file parsing
+    """
+    return bool_from_string(subject) and 1 or 0
+
+
+def bool_from_string(subject, strict=False, default=False):
+    """Interpret a string as a boolean.
+
+    A case-insensitive match is performed such that strings matching 't',
+    'true', 'on', 'y', 'yes', or '1' are considered True and, when
+    `strict=False`, anything else returns the value specified by 'default'.
+
+    Useful for JSON-decoded stuff and config file parsing.
+
+    If `strict=True`, unrecognized values, including None, will raise a
+    ValueError which is useful when parsing values passed in from an API call.
+    Strings yielding False are 'f', 'false', 'off', 'n', 'no', or '0'.
+    """
+    if not isinstance(subject, six.string_types):
+        subject = six.text_type(subject)
+
+    lowered = subject.strip().lower()
+
+    if lowered in TRUE_STRINGS:
+        return True
+    elif lowered in FALSE_STRINGS:
+        return False
+    elif strict:
+        acceptable = ', '.join(
+            "'%s'" % s for s in sorted(TRUE_STRINGS + FALSE_STRINGS))
+        msg = _("Unrecognized value '%(val)s', acceptable values are:"
+                " %(acceptable)s") % {'val': subject,
+                                      'acceptable': acceptable}
+        raise ValueError(msg)
+    else:
+        return default
+
+
+def safe_decode(text, incoming=None, errors='strict'):
+    """Decodes incoming text/bytes string using `incoming` if they're not
+       already unicode.
+
+    :param incoming: Text's current encoding
+    :param errors: Errors handling policy. See here for valid
+        values http://docs.python.org/2/library/codecs.html
+    :returns: text or a unicode `incoming` encoded
+                representation of it.
+    :raises TypeError: If text is not an instance of str
+    """
+    if not isinstance(text, (six.string_types, six.binary_type)):
+        raise TypeError("%s can't be decoded" % type(text))
+
+    if isinstance(text, six.text_type):
+        return text
+
+    if not incoming:
+        incoming = (sys.stdin.encoding or
+                    sys.getdefaultencoding())
+
+    try:
+        return text.decode(incoming, errors)
+    except UnicodeDecodeError:
+        # Note(flaper87) If we get here, it means that
+        # sys.stdin.encoding / sys.getdefaultencoding
+        # didn't return a suitable encoding to decode
+        # text. This happens mostly when global LANG
+        # var is not set correctly and there's no
+        # default encoding. In this case, most likely
+        # python will use ASCII or ANSI encoders as
+        # default encodings but they won't be capable
+        # of decoding non-ASCII characters.
+        #
+        # Also, UTF-8 is being used since it's an ASCII
+        # extension.
+        return text.decode('utf-8', errors)
+
+
+def safe_encode(text, incoming=None,
+                encoding='utf-8', errors='strict'):
+    """Encodes incoming text/bytes string using `encoding`.
+
+    If incoming is not specified, text is expected to be encoded with
+    current python's default encoding. (`sys.getdefaultencoding`)
+
+    :param incoming: Text's current encoding
+    :param encoding: Expected encoding for text (Default UTF-8)
+    :param errors: Errors handling policy. See here for valid
+        values http://docs.python.org/2/library/codecs.html
+    :returns: text or a bytestring `encoding` encoded
+                representation of it.
+    :raises TypeError: If text is not an instance of str
+    """
+    if not isinstance(text, (six.string_types, six.binary_type)):
+        raise TypeError("%s can't be encoded" % type(text))
+
+    if not incoming:
+        incoming = (sys.stdin.encoding or
+                    sys.getdefaultencoding())
+
+    if isinstance(text, six.text_type):
+        return text.encode(encoding, errors)
+    elif text and encoding != incoming:
+        # Decode text before encoding it with `encoding`
+        text = safe_decode(text, incoming, errors)
+        return text.encode(encoding, errors)
+    else:
+        return text
+
+
+def string_to_bytes(text, unit_system='IEC', return_int=False):
+    """Converts a string into an float representation of bytes.
+
+    The units supported for IEC ::
+
+        Kb(it), Kib(it), Mb(it), Mib(it), Gb(it), Gib(it), Tb(it), Tib(it)
+        KB, KiB, MB, MiB, GB, GiB, TB, TiB
+
+    The units supported for SI ::
+
+        kb(it), Mb(it), Gb(it), Tb(it)
+        kB, MB, GB, TB
+
+    Note that the SI unit system does not support capital letter 'K'
+
+    :param text: String input for bytes size conversion.
+    :param unit_system: Unit system for byte size conversion.
+    :param return_int: If True, returns integer representation of text
+                       in bytes. (default: decimal)
+    :returns: Numerical representation of text in bytes.
+    :raises ValueError: If text has an invalid value.
+
+    """
+    try:
+        base, reg_ex = UNIT_SYSTEM_INFO[unit_system]
+    except KeyError:
+        msg = _('Invalid unit system: "%s"') % unit_system
+        raise ValueError(msg)
+    match = reg_ex.match(text)
+    if match:
+        magnitude = float(match.group(1))
+        unit_prefix = match.group(2)
+        if match.group(3) in ['b', 'bit']:
+            magnitude /= 8
+    else:
+        msg = _('Invalid string format: %s') % text
+        raise ValueError(msg)
+    if not unit_prefix:
+        res = magnitude
+    else:
+        res = magnitude * pow(base, UNIT_PREFIX_EXPONENT[unit_prefix])
+    if return_int:
+        return int(math.ceil(res))
+    return res
+
+
+def to_slug(value, incoming=None, errors="strict"):
+    """Normalize string.
+
+    Convert to lowercase, remove non-word characters, and convert spaces
+    to hyphens.
+
+    Inspired by Django's `slugify` filter.
+
+    :param value: Text to slugify
+    :param incoming: Text's current encoding
+    :param errors: Errors handling policy. See here for valid
+        values http://docs.python.org/2/library/codecs.html
+    :returns: slugified unicode representation of `value`
+    :raises TypeError: If text is not an instance of str
+    """
+    value = safe_decode(value, incoming, errors)
+    # NOTE(aababilov): no need to use safe_(encode|decode) here:
+    # encodings are always "ascii", error handling is always "ignore"
+    # and types are always known (first: unicode; second: str)
+    value = unicodedata.normalize("NFKD", value).encode(
+        "ascii", "ignore").decode("ascii")
+    value = SLUGIFY_STRIP_RE.sub("", value).strip().lower()
+    return SLUGIFY_HYPHENATE_RE.sub("-", value)
diff --git a/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/timeutils.py b/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/timeutils.py
index d8cf5395b..c48da95f1 100644
--- a/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/timeutils.py
+++ b/oslo/messaging/openstack/common/timeutils.py
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ def utcnow():
 
 
 def iso8601_from_timestamp(timestamp):
-    """Returns a iso8601 formated date from timestamp."""
+    """Returns an iso8601 formatted date from timestamp."""
     return isotime(datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(timestamp))
 
 
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ def set_time_override(override_time=None):
 
 def advance_time_delta(timedelta):
     """Advance overridden time using a datetime.timedelta."""
-    assert(not utcnow.override_time is None)
+    assert utcnow.override_time is not None
     try:
         for dt in utcnow.override_time:
             dt += timedelta
@@ -201,8 +201,8 @@ def total_seconds(delta):
 def is_soon(dt, window):
     """Determines if time is going to happen in the next window seconds.
 
-    :params dt: the time
-    :params window: minimum seconds to remain to consider the time not soon
+    :param dt: the time
+    :param window: minimum seconds to remain to consider the time not soon
 
     :return: True if expiration is within the given duration
     """
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 1ac7dc05e..d40305249 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -28,3 +28,7 @@ show-source = True
 ignore = E226,E241,E265,E714,H237,H305,H307,H402,H405,H904
 exclude = .tox,dist,doc,*.egg,build,__init__.py
 builtins = _
+
+[hacking]
+import_exceptions =
+  oslo.messaging.openstack.common.gettextutils