diff --git a/kitty/data-types.c b/kitty/data-types.c
index c8d68b89c..6f8dac951 100644
--- a/kitty/data-types.c
+++ b/kitty/data-types.c
@@ -13,10 +13,14 @@ extern int init_ColorProfile(PyObject *);
 extern int init_SpriteMap(PyObject *);
 extern int init_ChangeTracker(PyObject *);
 extern PyObject* create_256_color_table();
+extern PyObject* parse_bytes_dump(PyObject UNUSED *self, PyObject *val);
+extern PyObject* parse_bytes(PyObject UNUSED *self, PyObject *val);
 #include "gl.h"
 
 static PyMethodDef module_methods[] = {
     GL_METHODS
+    {"parse_bytes", (PyCFunction)parse_bytes, METH_VARARGS, ""},
+    {"parse_bytes_dump", (PyCFunction)parse_bytes_dump, METH_VARARGS, ""},
     {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}        /* Sentinel */
 };
 
diff --git a/kitty/parser.c b/kitty/parser.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bd3021f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kitty/parser.c
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+/*
+ * parser.c
+ * Copyright (C) 2016 Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>
+ *
+ * Distributed under terms of the GPL3 license.
+ */
+
+#include "data-types.h"
+
+
+PyObject*
+#ifdef DUMP_COMMANDS
+parse_bytes_dump(PyObject UNUSED *self, PyObject *args) {
+#else
+parse_bytes(PyObject UNUSED *self, PyObject *args) {
+#endif
+    Py_buffer pybuf;
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "y*", &pybuf)) return NULL;
+    Py_RETURN_NONE;
+}
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 7afa82225..ebde36759 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -71,6 +71,10 @@ def init_env(debug=False):
         pass
 
 
+def define(x):
+    return '-D' + x
+
+
 def run_tool(cmd):
     if isinstance(cmd, str):
         cmd = shlex.split(cmd[0])
@@ -80,13 +84,22 @@ def run_tool(cmd):
     if ret != 0:
         raise SystemExit(ret)
 
+SPECIAL_SOURCES = {
+    'kitty/parser_dump.c': ('kitty/parser.c', ['DUMP_COMMANDS']),
+}
+
 
 def compile_c_extension(module, *sources):
     prefix = os.path.basename(module)
     objects = [os.path.join(build_dir, prefix + '-' + os.path.basename(src) + '.o') for src in sources]
     for src, dest in zip(sources, objects):
+        cflgs = cflags[:]
+        if src in SPECIAL_SOURCES:
+            src, defines = SPECIAL_SOURCES[src]
+            cflgs.extend(map(define, defines))
+
         src = os.path.join(base, src)
-        run_tool([cc] + cflags + ['-c', src] + ['-o', dest])
+        run_tool([cc] + cflgs + ['-c', src] + ['-o', dest])
     run_tool([cc] + ldflags + objects + ldpaths + ['-o', os.path.join(base, module + '.so')])
 
 
@@ -103,6 +116,7 @@ def find_c_files():
     for x in os.listdir(d):
         if x.endswith('.c'):
             yield os.path.join('kitty', x)
+    yield 'kitty/parser_dump.c'
 
 
 def main():