diff --git a/conn.go b/conn.go
index 7138665..da84fa6 100644
--- a/conn.go
+++ b/conn.go
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ type Socket interface {
 	Send(m Message) error
 	SendMessages(m []Message) error
 	Receive() ([]Message, error)
+	ReceiveToBuf(buf []byte) ([]Message, error)
 }
 
 // Dial dials a connection to netlink, using the specified netlink family.
@@ -135,7 +136,7 @@ func (c *Conn) Execute(m Message) ([]Message, error) {
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	res, err := c.lockedReceive()
+	res, err := c.lockedReceive(nil)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
@@ -228,14 +229,27 @@ func (c *Conn) Receive() ([]Message, error) {
 	c.mu.RLock()
 	defer c.mu.RUnlock()
 
-	return c.lockedReceive()
+	return c.lockedReceive(nil)
+}
+
+// ReceiveToBuf receives one or more messages from netlink to buffer.  Multi-part messages are
+// handled transparently and returned as a single slice of Messages, with the
+// final empty "multi-part done" message removed.
+//
+// If any of the messages indicate a netlink error, that error will be returned.
+func (c *Conn) ReceiveToBuf(buf []byte) ([]Message, error) {
+	// Wait for any concurrent calls to Execute to finish before proceeding.
+	c.mu.RLock()
+	defer c.mu.RUnlock()
+
+	return c.lockedReceive(buf)
 }
 
 // lockedReceive implements Receive, but must be called with c.mu acquired for reading.
 // We rely on the kernel to deal with concurrent reads and writes to the netlink
 // socket itself.
-func (c *Conn) lockedReceive() ([]Message, error) {
-	msgs, err := c.receive()
+func (c *Conn) lockedReceive(buf []byte) ([]Message, error) {
+	msgs, err := c.receive(buf)
 	if err != nil {
 		c.debug(func(d *debugger) {
 			d.debugf(1, "recv: err: %v", err)
@@ -266,7 +280,7 @@ func (c *Conn) lockedReceive() ([]Message, error) {
 
 // receive is the internal implementation of Conn.Receive, which can be called
 // recursively to handle multi-part messages.
-func (c *Conn) receive() ([]Message, error) {
+func (c *Conn) receive(buf []byte) ([]Message, error) {
 	// NB: All non-nil errors returned from this function *must* be of type
 	// OpError in order to maintain the appropriate contract with callers of
 	// this package.
@@ -276,7 +290,14 @@ func (c *Conn) receive() ([]Message, error) {
 
 	var res []Message
 	for {
-		msgs, err := c.sock.Receive()
+		var msgs []Message
+		var err error
+
+		if len(buf) == 0 {
+			msgs, err = c.sock.Receive()
+		} else {
+			msgs, err = c.sock.ReceiveToBuf(buf)
+		}
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, newOpError("receive", err)
 		}
diff --git a/conn_linux.go b/conn_linux.go
index 4af18c9..85844f4 100644
--- a/conn_linux.go
+++ b/conn_linux.go
@@ -165,6 +165,38 @@ func (c *conn) Receive() ([]Message, error) {
 	return msgs, nil
 }
 
+// ReceiveToBuf receives one or more Messages from netlink to buffer.
+// Buffer should be aligned on a 4-byte boundary.
+func (c *conn) ReceiveToBuf(buf []byte) ([]Message, error) {
+	// Read out all available messages
+	n, _, _, _, err := c.s.Recvmsg(context.Background(), buf, nil, 0)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	alignedLen := nlmsgAlign(n)
+	if alignedLen > len(buf) {
+		alignedLen -= nlmsgAlignTo
+	}
+
+	raw, err := syscall.ParseNetlinkMessage(buf[:alignedLen])
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	msgs := make([]Message, 0, len(raw))
+	for _, r := range raw {
+		m := Message{
+			Header: sysToHeader(r.Header),
+			Data:   r.Data,
+		}
+
+		msgs = append(msgs, m)
+	}
+
+	return msgs, nil
+}
+
 // Close closes the connection.
 func (c *conn) Close() error { return c.s.Close() }
 
diff --git a/conn_others.go b/conn_others.go
index 4c5e739..51a8fab 100644
--- a/conn_others.go
+++ b/conn_others.go
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ type conn struct{}
 func dial(_ int, _ *Config) (*conn, uint32, error) { return nil, 0, errUnimplemented }
 func newError(_ int) error                         { return errUnimplemented }
 
-func (c *conn) Send(_ Message) error           { return errUnimplemented }
-func (c *conn) SendMessages(_ []Message) error { return errUnimplemented }
-func (c *conn) Receive() ([]Message, error)    { return nil, errUnimplemented }
-func (c *conn) Close() error                   { return errUnimplemented }
+func (c *conn) Send(_ Message) error                       { return errUnimplemented }
+func (c *conn) SendMessages(_ []Message) error             { return errUnimplemented }
+func (c *conn) Receive() ([]Message, error)                { return nil, errUnimplemented }
+func (c *conn) ReceiveToBuf(buf []byte) ([]Message, error) { return nil, errUnimplemented }
+func (c *conn) Close() error                               { return errUnimplemented }
diff --git a/nltest/nltest.go b/nltest/nltest.go
index 2065bab..19fe052 100644
--- a/nltest/nltest.go
+++ b/nltest/nltest.go
@@ -202,6 +202,10 @@ func (c *socket) Receive() ([]netlink.Message, error) {
 	return msgs, err
 }
 
+func (c *socket) ReceiveToBuf(buf []byte) ([]netlink.Message, error) {
+	return nil, nil
+}
+
 func panicf(format string, a ...interface{}) {
 	panic(fmt.Sprintf(format, a...))
 }