diff --git a/includes/bootstrap.inc b/includes/bootstrap.inc
index c7c484f8315d06e04ed807a4bd694fdc370e9f68..43cbb1d854131962f54f9f1c45ff8add14abf73d 100644
--- a/includes/bootstrap.inc
+++ b/includes/bootstrap.inc
@@ -225,6 +225,195 @@
  */
 define('DRUPAL_PHP_FUNCTION_PATTERN', '[a-zA-Z_\x7f-\xff][a-zA-Z0-9_\x7f-\xff]*');
 
+/**
+ * Provides a caching wrapper to be used in place of large array structures.
+ *
+ * This class should be extended by systems that need to cache large amounts
+ * of data and have it represented as an array to calling functions. These
+ * arrays can become very large, so ArrayAccess is used to allow different
+ * strategies to be used for caching internally (lazy loading, building caches
+ * over time etc.). This can dramatically reduce the amount of data that needs
+ * to be loaded from cache backends on each request, and memory usage from
+ * static caches of that same data.
+ *
+ * Note that array_* functions do not work with ArrayAccess. Systems using
+ * DrupalCacheArray should use this only internally. If providing API functions
+ * that return the full array, this can be cached separately or returned
+ * directly. However since DrupalCacheArray holds partial content by design, it
+ * should be a normal PHP array or otherwise contain the full structure.
+ *
+ * Note also that due to limitations in PHP prior to 5.3.4, it is impossible to
+ * write directly to the contents of nested arrays contained in this object.
+ * Only writes to the top-level array elements are possible. So if you
+ * previously had set $object['foo'] = array(1, 2, 'bar' => 'baz'), but later
+ * want to change the value of 'bar' from 'baz' to 'foobar', you cannot do so
+ * a targeted write like $object['foo']['bar'] = 'foobar'. Instead, you must
+ * overwrite the entire top-level 'foo' array with the entire set of new
+ * values: $object['foo'] = array(1, 2, 'bar' => 'foobar'). Due to this same
+ * limitation, attempts to create references to any contained data, nested or
+ * otherwise, will fail silently. So $var = &$object['foo'] will not throw an
+ * error, and $var will be populated with the contents of $object['foo'], but
+ * that data will be passed by value, not reference. For more information on
+ * the PHP limitation, see the note in the official PHP documentation at·
+ * http://php.net/manual/en/arrayaccess.offsetget.php on
+ * ArrayAccess::offsetGet().
+ *
+ * By default, the class accounts for caches where calling functions might
+ * request keys in the array that won't exist even after a cache rebuild. This
+ * prevents situations where a cache rebuild would be triggered over and over
+ * due to a 'missing' item. These cases are stored internally as a value of
+ * NULL. This means that the offsetGet() and offsetExists() methods
+ * must be overridden if caching an array where the top level values can
+ * legitimately be NULL, and where $object->offsetExists() needs to correctly
+ * return (equivalent to array_key_exists() vs. isset()). This should not
+ * be necessary in the majority of cases.
+ *
+ * Classes extending this class must override at least the
+ * resolveCacheMiss() method to have a working implementation.
+ *
+ * offsetSet() is not overridden by this class by default. In practice this
+ * means that assigning an offset via arrayAccess will only apply while the
+ * object is in scope and will not be written back to the persistent cache.
+ * This follows a similar pattern to static vs. persistent caching in
+ * procedural code. Extending classes may wish to alter this behaviour, for
+ * example by overriding offsetSet() and adding an automatic call to persist().
+ *
+ * @see SchemaCache
+ */
+abstract class DrupalCacheArray implements ArrayAccess {
+
+  /**
+   * A cid to pass to cache_set() and cache_get().
+   */
+  private $cid;
+
+  /**
+   * A bin to pass to cache_set() and cache_get().
+   */
+  private $bin;
+
+  /**
+   * An array of keys to add to the cache at the end of the request.
+   */
+  protected $keysToPersist = array();
+
+  /**
+   * Storage for the data itself.
+   */
+  protected $storage = array();
+
+  /**
+   * Constructor.
+   *
+   * @param $cid
+   *   The cid for the array being cached.
+   * @param $bin
+   *   The bin to cache the array.
+   */
+  public function __construct($cid, $bin) {
+    $this->cid = $cid;
+    $this->bin = $bin;
+
+    if ($cached = cache_get($this->cid, $this->bin)) {
+     $this->storage = $cached->data;
+    }
+  }
+
+  public function offsetExists($offset) {
+    return $this->offsetGet($offset) !== NULL;
+  }
+
+  public function offsetGet($offset) {
+    if (isset($this->storage[$offset]) || array_key_exists($offset, $this->storage)) {
+      return $this->storage[$offset];
+    }
+    else {
+      return $this->resolveCacheMiss($offset);
+    }
+  }
+
+  public function offsetSet($offset, $value) {
+    $this->storage[$offset] = $value;
+  }
+
+  public function offsetUnset($offset) {
+    unset($this->storage[$offset]);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Flags an offset value to be written to the persistent cache.
+   *
+   * If a value is assigned to a cache object with offsetSet(), by default it
+   * will not be written to the persistent cache unless it is flagged with this
+   * method. This allows items to be cached for the duration of a request,
+   * without necessarily writing back to the persistent cache at the end.
+   *
+   * @param $offset
+   *   The array offset that was request.
+   * @param $persist
+   *   Optional boolean to specify whether the offset should be persisted or
+   *   not, defaults to TRUE. When called with $persist = FALSE the offset will
+   *   be unflagged so that it will not written at the end of the request.
+   */
+  protected function persist($offset, $persist = TRUE) {
+    $this->keysToPersist[$offset] = $persist;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Resolves a cache miss.
+   *
+   * When an offset is not found in the object, this is treated as a cache
+   * miss. This method allows classes implementing the interface to look up
+   * the actual value and allow it to be cached.
+   *
+   * @param $offset
+   *   The offset that was requested.
+   *
+   * @return
+   *   The value of the offset, or NULL if no value was found.
+   */
+  abstract protected function resolveCacheMiss($offset);
+
+  /**
+   * Immediately write a value to the persistent cache.
+   *
+   * @param $cid
+   *   The cache ID.
+   * @param $bin
+   *   The cache bin.
+   * @param $data
+   *   The data to write to the persistent cache.
+   * @param $lock
+   *   Whether to acquire a lock before writing to cache.
+   */
+  protected function set($cid, $data, $bin, $lock = TRUE) {
+    // Lock cache writes to help avoid stampedes.
+    // To implement locking for cache misses, override __construct().
+    $lock_name = $cid . ':' . $bin;
+    if (!$lock || lock_acquire($lock_name)) {
+      if ($cached = cache_get($cid, $bin)) {
+        $data = $cached->data + $data;
+      }
+      cache_set($cid, $data, $bin);
+      if ($lock) {
+        lock_release($lock_name);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  public function __destruct() {
+    $data = array();
+    foreach ($this->keysToPersist as $offset => $persist) {
+      if ($persist) {
+        $data[$offset] = $this->storage[$offset];
+      }
+    }
+    if (!empty($data)) {
+      $this->set($this->cid, $data, $this->bin);
+    }
+  }
+}
+
 /**
  * Start the timer with the specified name. If you start and stop the same
  * timer multiple times, the measured intervals will be accumulated.
@@ -2532,6 +2721,55 @@ function ip_address() {
  *   If true, the schema will be rebuilt instead of retrieved from the cache.
  */
 function drupal_get_schema($table = NULL, $rebuild = FALSE) {
+  static $schema;
+
+  if ($rebuild || !isset($table)) {
+    $schema = drupal_get_complete_schema($rebuild);
+  }
+  elseif (!isset($schema)) {
+    $schema = new SchemaCache();
+  }
+
+  if (!isset($table)) {
+    return $schema;
+  }
+  if (isset($schema[$table])) {
+    return $schema[$table];
+  }
+  else {
+    return FALSE;
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * Extends DrupalCacheArray to allow for dynamic building of the schema cache.
+ */
+class SchemaCache extends DrupalCacheArray {
+
+  public function __construct() {
+    // Cache by request method.
+    parent::__construct('schema:runtime:' . $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'GET', 'cache');
+  }
+
+  protected function resolveCacheMiss($offset) {
+    $complete_schema = drupal_get_complete_schema();
+    $value = isset($complete_schema[$offset]) ? $complete_schema[$offset] :  NULL;
+    $this->storage[$offset] = $value;
+    $this->persist($offset);
+    return $value;
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * Get the whole database schema.
+ *
+ * The returned schema will include any modifications made by any
+ * module that implements hook_schema_alter().
+ *
+ * @param $rebuild
+ *   If true, the schema will be rebuilt instead of retrieved from the cache.
+ */
+function drupal_get_complete_schema($rebuild = FALSE) {
   static $schema = array();
 
   if (empty($schema) || $rebuild) {
@@ -2573,18 +2811,13 @@ function drupal_get_schema($table = NULL, $rebuild = FALSE) {
       if (!empty($schema) && (drupal_get_bootstrap_phase() == DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL)) {
         cache_set('schema', $schema);
       }
+      if ($rebuild) {
+        cache_clear_all('schema:', 'cache', TRUE);
+      }
     }
   }
 
-  if (!isset($table)) {
-    return $schema;
-  }
-  elseif (isset($schema[$table])) {
-    return $schema[$table];
-  }
-  else {
-    return FALSE;
-  }
+  return $schema;
 }
 
 /**