diff --git a/buffer.c b/buffer.c
index 14108884..1f4e9236 100644
--- a/buffer.c
+++ b/buffer.c
@@ -861,15 +861,28 @@ done:
 }
 
 /* Reads data from an event buffer and drains the bytes read */
-
 int
 evbuffer_remove(struct evbuffer *buf, void *data_out, size_t datlen)
+{
+	ev_ssize_t n;
+	EVBUFFER_LOCK(buf);
+	n = evbuffer_copyout(buf, data_out, datlen);
+	if (n > 0) {
+		if (evbuffer_drain(buf, n)<0)
+			n = -1;
+	}
+	EVBUFFER_UNLOCK(buf);
+	return (int)n;
+}
+
+ev_ssize_t
+evbuffer_copyout(struct evbuffer *buf, void *data_out, size_t datlen)
 {
 	/*XXX fails badly on sendfile case. */
-	struct evbuffer_chain *chain, *tmp;
+	struct evbuffer_chain *chain;
 	char *data = data_out;
 	size_t nread;
-	int result = 0;
+	ev_ssize_t result = 0;
 
 	EVBUFFER_LOCK(buf);
 
@@ -893,31 +906,15 @@ evbuffer_remove(struct evbuffer *buf, void *data_out, size_t datlen)
 		data += chain->off;
 		datlen -= chain->off;
 
-		if (buf->last_with_datap == &chain->next) {
-			buf->last_with_datap = &buf->first;
-		}
-
-		tmp = chain;
 		chain = chain->next;
-		evbuffer_chain_free(tmp);
+		EVUTIL_ASSERT(chain || datlen==0);
 	}
 
-	buf->first = chain;
-	if (chain == NULL)
-		buf->last = NULL;
-
 	if (datlen) {
+		EVUTIL_ASSERT(chain);
 		memcpy(data, chain->buffer + chain->misalign, datlen);
-		chain->misalign += datlen;
-		chain->off -= datlen;
 	}
 
-	buf->total_len -= nread;
-
-	buf->n_del_for_cb += nread;
-	if (nread)
-		evbuffer_invoke_callbacks(buf);
-
 	result = nread;
 done:
 	EVBUFFER_UNLOCK(buf);
diff --git a/include/event2/buffer.h b/include/event2/buffer.h
index 8fb5c3d0..bd175c25 100644
--- a/include/event2/buffer.h
+++ b/include/event2/buffer.h
@@ -267,6 +267,16 @@ int evbuffer_add(struct evbuffer *buf, const void *data, size_t datlen);
  */
 int evbuffer_remove(struct evbuffer *buf, void *data, size_t datlen);
 
+/**
+  Read data from an event buffer, and leave the buffer unchanged.
+
+  @param buf the event buffer to be read from
+  @param data the destination buffer to store the result
+  @param datlen the maximum size of the destination buffer
+  @return the number of bytes read, or -1 if we can't drain the buffer.
+ */
+ev_ssize_t evbuffer_copyout(struct evbuffer *buf, void *data_out, size_t datlen);
+
 /**
   Read data from an event buffer into another event buffer draining
   the bytes from the src buffer read.  This function avoids memcpy