diff --git a/libavformat/avformat.h b/libavformat/avformat.h
index 82d245e688..33e820e4e1 100644
--- a/libavformat/avformat.h
+++ b/libavformat/avformat.h
@@ -994,6 +994,17 @@ typedef struct AVFormatContext {
      */
     int error_recognition;
 
+    /**
+     * Custom interrupt callbacks for the I/O layer.
+     *
+     * decoding: set by the user before avformat_open_input().
+     * encoding: set by the user before avformat_write_header()
+     * (mainly useful for AVFMT_NOFILE formats). The callback
+     * should also be passed to avio_open2() if it's used to
+     * open the file.
+     */
+    AVIOInterruptCB interrupt_callback;
+
     /*****************************************************************
      * All fields below this line are not part of the public API. They
      * may not be used outside of libavformat and can be changed and
diff --git a/libavformat/avio.h b/libavformat/avio.h
index be14e3c89d..a4041cb770 100644
--- a/libavformat/avio.h
+++ b/libavformat/avio.h
@@ -35,6 +35,22 @@
 
 #define AVIO_SEEKABLE_NORMAL 0x0001 /**< Seeking works like for a local file */
 
+/**
+ * Callback for checking whether to abort blocking functions.
+ * AVERROR_EXIT is returned in this case by the interrupted
+ * function. During blocking operations, callback is called with
+ * opaque as parameter. If the callback returns 1, the
+ * blocking operation will be aborted.
+ *
+ * No members can be added to this struct without a major bump, if
+ * new elements have been added after this struct in AVFormatContext
+ * or AVIOContext.
+ */
+typedef struct {
+    int (*callback)(void*);
+    void *opaque;
+} AVIOInterruptCB;
+
 /**
  * Bytestream IO Context.
  * New fields can be added to the end with minor version bumps.
@@ -109,6 +125,7 @@ typedef struct URLContext {
     void *priv_data;
     char *filename; /**< specified URL */
     int is_connected;
+    AVIOInterruptCB interrupt_callback;
 } URLContext;
 
 #define URL_PROTOCOL_FLAG_NESTED_SCHEME 1 /*< The protocol name can be the first part of a nested protocol scheme */
diff --git a/libavformat/url.h b/libavformat/url.h
index d69d0bc5c5..c0f532278f 100644
--- a/libavformat/url.h
+++ b/libavformat/url.h
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ typedef struct URLContext {
     int max_packet_size;        /**< if non zero, the stream is packetized with this max packet size */
     int is_streamed;            /**< true if streamed (no seek possible), default = false */
     int is_connected;
+    AVIOInterruptCB interrupt_callback;
 } URLContext;
 
 typedef struct URLProtocol {