diff --git a/Source/cmSystemTools.cxx b/Source/cmSystemTools.cxx
index fb2f297b0..4d9bf1185 100644
--- a/Source/cmSystemTools.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmSystemTools.cxx
@@ -417,6 +417,19 @@ std::string cmSystemTools::Capitalized(const std::string& s)
 }
 
 
+// Return a lower case string 
+std::string cmSystemTools::LowerCase(const std::string& s)
+{
+  std::string n;
+  n.resize(s.size());
+  for (size_t i = 0; i < s.size(); i++)
+    {
+    n[i] = tolower(s[i]);
+    }
+  return n;
+}
+
+
 // convert windows slashes to unix slashes \ with /
 const char *cmSystemTools::ConvertToUnixSlashes(std::string& path)
 {
diff --git a/Source/cmSystemTools.h b/Source/cmSystemTools.h
index c7c44afb2..c85a4ea69 100644
--- a/Source/cmSystemTools.h
+++ b/Source/cmSystemTools.h
@@ -95,6 +95,11 @@ public:
    */
   static std::string Capitalized(const std::string&);
   
+  /**
+   * Return a lower case string
+   */
+  static std::string LowerCase(const std::string&);
+  
   /**
    * Replace Windows file system slashes with Unix-style slashes.
    */