diff --git a/libs/ardour/ardour/operations.h b/libs/ardour/ardour/operations.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..945a5816a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libs/ardour/ardour/operations.h
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+/*
+    Copyright (C) 2011 Paul Davis
+    Author: Carl Hetherington <cth@carlh.net>
+
+    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+    (at your option) any later version.
+
+    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+    GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+    Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
+*/
+
+/** These are GQuarks for a subset of UI operations.  We use these
+ *  so that the undo system can be queried to find out what operations
+ *  are currently in progress, by calling Session::current_operations().
+ *
+ *  It is only necessary to add a GQuark here if you subsequently want
+ *  to be able to find out that a particular operation is in progress.
+ */
+
+namespace Operations {
+
+	extern GQuark capture;
+	extern GQuark paste;
+	extern GQuark duplicate_region;
+	extern GQuark insert_file;
+	extern GQuark insert_region;
+	extern GQuark drag_region_brush;
+	extern GQuark region_drag;
+	extern GQuark selection_grab;
+	extern GQuark region_fill;
+	extern GQuark fill_selection;
+	extern GQuark create_region;
+
+};
+	
diff --git a/libs/ardour/operations.cc b/libs/ardour/operations.cc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..eddd36036c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libs/ardour/operations.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+/*
+    Copyright (C) 2011 Paul Davis
+    Author: Carl Hetherington <cth@carlh.net>
+
+    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+    (at your option) any later version.
+
+    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+    GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+    Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
+*/
+
+#include <glib/gquark.h>
+#include "ardour/operations.h"
+#include "i18n.h"
+
+GQuark Operations::capture           = g_quark_from_static_string (_("capture"));
+GQuark Operations::paste             = g_quark_from_static_string (_("paste"));
+GQuark Operations::duplicate_region  = g_quark_from_static_string (_("duplicate region"));
+GQuark Operations::insert_file       = g_quark_from_static_string (_("insert file"));
+GQuark Operations::insert_region     = g_quark_from_static_string (_("insert region"));
+GQuark Operations::drag_region_brush = g_quark_from_static_string (_("drag region brush"));
+GQuark Operations::region_drag       = g_quark_from_static_string (_("region drag"));
+GQuark Operations::selection_grab    = g_quark_from_static_string (_("selection grab"));
+GQuark Operations::region_fill       = g_quark_from_static_string (_("region fill"));
+GQuark Operations::fill_selection    = g_quark_from_static_string (_("fill selection"));
+GQuark Operations::create_region     = g_quark_from_static_string (_("create region"));