diff --git a/doc/convertmd.jl b/doc/convertmd.jl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..ef310e148517e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/convertmd.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+using Lazy
+
+function pandoc(rst)
+  open("doc.rst", "w") do io
+    print(io, rst)
+  end
+  run(`pandoc doc.rst -o doc.md -t markdown_github`)
+  rm("doc.rst")
+  result = open(readall, "doc.md")
+  rm("doc.md")
+  return result
+end
+
+function rmquote(md)
+  ls = split(md, "\n")
+  ls = map(ls) do l
+    l in (">", ">\r") ? "" :
+    startswith(l, "> ") ? l[3:end] : l
+  end
+  join(ls, "\n")
+end
+
+escape(md) = @> md replace("\$", "\\\$") replace("&gt;", ">") replace("&lt;", "<")
+
+isvalid(rst) = !ismatch(r":\w+:|doctest|(^|\n)\s+\*|====|\[[\w0-9]+\]_", rst)
+
+function convert(doc)
+  if isvalid(doc)
+    pandoc(doc) |> rmquote |> escape
+  else
+    """
+    ```rst
+    $(chomp(doc))
+    ```
+    """
+  end |> chomp
+end
+
+function translate(file)
+  ls = split(open(readall, file), "\n")
+  doccing = false
+  iscode = false
+  open(file, "w") do io
+    doc = IOBuffer()
+    for l in ls
+      if iscode
+        l != "" && println(doc)
+        iscode = false
+      end
+      doccing && l == "::" && (iscode = true)
+      if l == "```rst"
+        doccing = true
+      elseif doccing && l == "```"
+        doccing = false
+        rst = takebuf_string(doc)
+        println(io, convert(rst))
+      elseif doccing
+        println(doc, l)
+      else
+        println(io, l)
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end
+
+translate("base/docs/helpdb.jl")