diff --git a/base/path.jl b/base/path.jl
index 3b8124f34f174a..218184b339735a 100644
--- a/base/path.jl
+++ b/base/path.jl
@@ -613,3 +613,30 @@ relpath(path::AbstractString, startpath::AbstractString) =
 for f in (:isdirpath, :splitdir, :splitdrive, :splitext, :normpath, :abspath)
     @eval $f(path::AbstractString) = $f(String(path))
 end
+
+"""
+    uripath(path::AbstractString)
+
+Encode `path` as a URI as per [RFC1738](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1738),
+[RFC3986](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986), and the [Freedesktop File URI
+spec](https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/file-uri-spec/).
+
+## Examples
+
+```julia-repl
+julia> uripath("/home/user/example file.jl")
+"file://<hostname>/home/user/example%20file.jl"
+```
+"""
+function uripath(path::String)
+    percent_escape(s) =
+        '%' * join(map(b -> string(b, base=16), codeunits(s)), '%')
+    encode_uri_component(s) =
+        replace(s, r"[^A-Za-z0-9\-_.~]+" => percent_escape)
+    string("file://", gethostname(), '/',
+           join(map(encode_uri_component,
+                    split(abspath(path), path_separator_re, keepempty=false)),
+                '/'))
+end
+
+uripath(path::AbstractString) = uripath(String(path))
diff --git a/test/path.jl b/test/path.jl
index 2f4f2d0983a58e..5d9c5ce74c57e3 100644
--- a/test/path.jl
+++ b/test/path.jl
@@ -311,6 +311,19 @@
         test_relpath()
     end
 
+    @testset "uripath" begin
+        host = gethostname()
+        drive, absdrive = if Sys.iswindows() "C:$sep", "C:/" else "", "/" end
+        @test Base.Filesystem.uripath("$(absdrive)some$(sep)file.txt") == "file://$host/$(drive)some/file.txt"
+        @test Base.Filesystem.uripath("$(absdrive)another$(sep)$(sep)folder$(sep)file.md") == "file://$host/$(drive)another/folder/file.md"
+        @test Base.Filesystem.uripath("$(absdrive)some file with ^odd% chars") == "file://$host/$(drive)some%20file%20with%20%5eodd%25%20chars"
+        @test Base.Filesystem.uripath("$(absdrive)weird chars like @#&()[]{}") == "file://$host/$(drive)weird%20chars%20like%20%40%23%26%28%29%5b%5d%7b%7d"
+        @test Base.Filesystem.uripath("$absdrive") == "file://$host/$drive"
+        @test Base.Filesystem.uripath(".") == Base.Filesystem.uripath(pwd())
+        @test Base.Filesystem.uripath("$(absdrive)unicode$(sep)Δεδομένα") == "file://$host/$(drive)unicode/%ce%94%ce%b5%ce%b4%ce%bf%ce%bc%ce%ad%ce%bd%ce%b1"
+        @test Base.Filesystem.uripath("$(absdrive)unicode$(sep)🧮🐛🔨") == "file://$host/$(drive)unicode/%f0%9f%a7%ae%f0%9f%90%9b%f0%9f%94%a8"
+    end
+
     if Sys.iswindows()
         @testset "issue #23646" begin
             @test lowercase(relpath("E:\\a\\b", "C:\\c")) == "e:\\a\\b"