diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonUtils.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonUtils.scala
index 52c70712eea3d..be5ebfa9219d3 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonUtils.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonUtils.scala
@@ -40,28 +40,3 @@ private[spark] object PythonUtils {
     paths.filter(_ != "").mkString(File.pathSeparator)
   }
 }
-
-
-/**
- * A utility class to redirect the child process's stdout or stderr.
- */
-private[spark] class RedirectThread(
-    in: InputStream,
-    out: OutputStream,
-    name: String)
-  extends Thread(name) {
-
-  setDaemon(true)
-  override def run() {
-    scala.util.control.Exception.ignoring(classOf[IOException]) {
-      // FIXME: We copy the stream on the level of bytes to avoid encoding problems.
-      val buf = new Array[Byte](1024)
-      var len = in.read(buf)
-      while (len != -1) {
-        out.write(buf, 0, len)
-        out.flush()
-        len = in.read(buf)
-      }
-    }
-  }
-}
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonWorkerFactory.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonWorkerFactory.scala
index bf716a8ab025b..4c4796f6c59ba 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonWorkerFactory.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonWorkerFactory.scala
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 
 package org.apache.spark.api.python
 
-import java.lang.Runtime
 import java.io.{DataOutputStream, DataInputStream, InputStream, OutputStreamWriter}
 import java.net.{InetAddress, ServerSocket, Socket, SocketException}
 
@@ -25,7 +24,7 @@ import scala.collection.mutable
 import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
 
 import org.apache.spark._
-import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
+import org.apache.spark.util.{RedirectThread, Utils}
 
 private[spark] class PythonWorkerFactory(pythonExec: String, envVars: Map[String, String])
   extends Logging {
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/PythonRunner.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/PythonRunner.scala
index 0d6751f3fa6d2..b66c3ba4d5fb0 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/PythonRunner.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/PythonRunner.scala
@@ -22,8 +22,8 @@ import java.net.URI
 import scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer
 import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
 
-import org.apache.spark.api.python.{PythonUtils, RedirectThread}
-import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
+import org.apache.spark.api.python.PythonUtils
+import org.apache.spark.util.{RedirectThread, Utils}
 
 /**
  * A main class used by spark-submit to launch Python applications. It executes python as a
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/SparkClassLauncher.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/SparkClassLauncher.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..8acabc591cb2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/SparkClassLauncher.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.deploy
+
+import java.io.File
+
+import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
+
+import org.apache.spark.util.{RedirectThread, Utils}
+
+/**
+ * Wrapper of `bin/spark-class` that prepares the launch environment of the child JVM properly.
+ */
+object SparkClassLauncher {
+
+  /**
+   * Launch a Spark class with the given class paths, library paths, java options and memory.
+   * If we are launching an application through Spark submit in client mode, we must also
+   * take into account special `spark.driver.*` properties needed to start the driver JVM.
+   */
+  def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
+    if (args.size < 8) {
+      System.err.println(
+        """
+          |Usage: org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkClassLauncher
+          |
+          |  [properties file]    - path to your Spark properties file
+          |  [java runner]        - command to launch the child JVM
+          |  [java class paths]   - class paths to pass to the child JVM
+          |  [java library paths] - library paths to pass to the child JVM
+          |  [java opts]          - java options to pass to the child JVM
+          |  [java memory]        - memory used to launch the child JVM
+          |  [client mode]        - whether the child JVM will run the Spark driver
+          |  [main class]         - main class to run in the child JVM
+          |  <main args>          - arguments passed to this main class
+          |
+          |Example:
+          |  org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkClassLauncher.SparkClassLauncher
+          |    conf/spark-defaults.conf java /classpath1:/classpath2 /librarypath1:/librarypath2
+          |    "-XX:-UseParallelGC -Dsome=property" 5g true org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkSubmit
+          |    --master local --class org.apache.spark.examples.SparkPi 10
+        """.stripMargin)
+      System.exit(1)
+    }
+    val propertiesFile = args(0)
+    val javaRunner = args(1)
+    val clClassPaths = args(2)
+    val clLibraryPaths = args(3)
+    val clJavaOpts = args(4)
+    val clJavaMemory = args(5)
+    val clientMode = args(6) == "true"
+    val mainClass = args(7)
+
+    // In client deploy mode, parse the properties file for certain `spark.driver.*` configs.
+    // These configs encode java options, class paths, and library paths needed to launch the JVM.
+    val properties =
+      if (clientMode) {
+        SparkSubmitArguments.getPropertiesFromFile(new File(propertiesFile)).toMap
+      } else {
+        Map[String, String]()
+      }
+    val confDriverMemory = properties.get("spark.driver.memory")
+    val confClassPaths = properties.get("spark.driver.extraClassPath")
+    val confLibraryPaths = properties.get("spark.driver.extraLibraryPath")
+    val confJavaOpts = properties.get("spark.driver.extraJavaOptions")
+
+    // Merge relevant command line values with the config equivalents, if any
+    val javaMemory =
+      if (clientMode) {
+        confDriverMemory.getOrElse(clJavaMemory)
+      } else {
+        clJavaMemory
+      }
+    val pathSeparator = sys.props("path.separator")
+    val classPaths = clClassPaths + confClassPaths.map(pathSeparator + _).getOrElse("")
+    val libraryPaths = clLibraryPaths + confLibraryPaths.map(pathSeparator + _).getOrElse("")
+    val javaOpts = Utils.splitCommandString(clJavaOpts) ++
+      confJavaOpts.map(Utils.splitCommandString).getOrElse(Seq.empty)
+    val filteredJavaOpts = javaOpts.filterNot { opt =>
+      opt.startsWith("-Djava.library.path") || opt.startsWith("-Xms") || opt.startsWith("-Xmx")
+    }
+
+    // Build up command
+    val command: Seq[String] =
+      Seq(javaRunner) ++
+      { if (classPaths.nonEmpty) Seq("-cp", classPaths) else Seq.empty } ++
+      { if (libraryPaths.nonEmpty) Seq(s"-Djava.library.path=$libraryPaths") else Seq.empty } ++
+      filteredJavaOpts ++
+      Seq(s"-Xms$javaMemory", s"-Xmx$javaMemory") ++
+      Seq(mainClass) ++
+      args.slice(8, args.size)
+
+    command.foreach(println)
+
+    val builder = new ProcessBuilder(command)
+    val process = builder.start()
+    new RedirectThread(System.in, process.getOutputStream, "redirect stdin").start()
+    new RedirectThread(process.getInputStream, System.out, "redirect stdout").start()
+    new RedirectThread(process.getErrorStream, System.err, "redirect stderr").start()
+    System.exit(process.waitFor())
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/Utils.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/Utils.scala
index 019f68b160894..79fd4060f57ef 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/Utils.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/Utils.scala
@@ -1421,3 +1421,24 @@ private[spark] object Utils extends Logging {
   }
 
 }
+
+/**
+ * A utility class to redirect the child process's stdout or stderr.
+ */
+private[spark] class RedirectThread(in: InputStream, out: OutputStream, name: String)
+  extends Thread(name) {
+
+  setDaemon(true)
+  override def run() {
+    scala.util.control.Exception.ignoring(classOf[IOException]) {
+      // FIXME: We copy the stream on the level of bytes to avoid encoding problems.
+      val buf = new Array[Byte](1024)
+      var len = in.read(buf)
+      while (len != -1) {
+        out.write(buf, 0, len)
+        out.flush()
+        len = in.read(buf)
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}