diff --git a/sys/posix/include/fcntl.h b/sys/posix/include/fcntl.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..797f116bc7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sys/posix/include/fcntl.h
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2016 Eistec AB
+ *
+ * This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU Lesser
+ * General Public License v2.1. See the file LICENSE in the top level
+ * directory for more details.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * @file
+ * @ingroup posix
+ * @brief   POSIX compatible fcntl.h definitions
+ * @author  Joakim Nohlgård <joakim.nohlgard@eistec.se>
+ *
+ * @see http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/fcntl.h.html
+ */
+
+/** @todo Remove ifdef BOARD_MIPS_MALTA special case after
+ * [#6639](https://github.com/RIOT-OS/RIOT/pull/6639) is merged */
+#ifndef DOXYGEN
+#if defined(CPU_NATIVE) || MODULE_NEWLIB || defined(BOARD_MIPS_MALTA)
+/* If building on native or newlib we need to use the system header instead */
+#pragma GCC system_header
+/* without the GCC pragma above #include_next will trigger a pedantic error */
+#include_next <fcntl.h>
+#else
+#ifndef FCNTL_H_
+#define FCNTL_H_
+
+#include <sys/types.h> /* for mode_t, off_t */
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+extern "C" {
+#endif
+
+/* Constants used for the flags in fcntl and open */
+/* The names of the constants are defined by POSIX but most of these numbers
+ * were chosen somewhat arbitrarily */
+#define O_ACCMODE   (O_RDONLY|O_WRONLY|O_RDWR)
+#define O_RDONLY    0       /* Read only */
+#define O_WRONLY    1       /* Write only */
+#define O_RDWR      2       /* Read+write */
+#define O_APPEND    0x0008  /* Set append mode */
+#define O_CREAT     0x0010  /* Create file if it does not exist */
+#define O_TRUNC     0x0020  /* Truncate flag */
+#define O_EXCL      0x0040  /* Exclusive use flag */
+
+#define F_DUPFD     0       /* Duplicate file descriptor */
+#define F_GETFD     1       /* Get file descriptor flags */
+#define F_SETFD     2       /* Set file descriptor flags */
+#define F_GETFL     3       /* Get file status flags */
+#define F_SETFL     4       /* Set file status flags */
+#define F_GETOWN    5       /* Get owner */
+#define F_SETOWN    6       /* Set owner */
+#define F_GETLK     7       /* Get record-locking information */
+#define F_SETLK     8       /* Set or Clear a record-lock (Non-Blocking) */
+#define F_SETLKW    9       /* Set or Clear a record-lock (Blocking) */
+
+#define FD_CLOEXEC  1       /* Close the file descriptor upon execution of an exec family function */
+
+int  creat(const char *, mode_t);
+int  fcntl(int, int, ...);
+int  open(const char *, int, ...);
+int  openat(int, const char *, int, ...);
+int  posix_fadvise(int, off_t, off_t, int);
+int  posix_fallocate(int, off_t, off_t);
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+}
+#endif
+
+#endif /* FCNTL_H_ */
+
+#endif /* CPU_NATIVE */
+
+#endif /* DOXYGEN */
+/** @} */