Index: includes/common.inc
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/drupal/drupal/includes/common.inc,v
retrieving revision 1.1011
diff -u -p -r1.1011 common.inc
--- includes/common.inc	9 Oct 2009 16:33:13 -0000	1.1011
+++ includes/common.inc	10 Oct 2009 23:49:27 -0000
@@ -2567,6 +2567,37 @@ function drupal_attributes(array $attrib
  *   an HTML string containing a link to the given path.
  */
 function l($text, $path, array $options = array()) {
+  $variables = array(
+    'text' => $text,
+    'path' => $path,
+    'options' => $options,
+  );
+  // @todo: This is probably too cautious. What's the right condition for
+  // knowing if theme() is safe to call? There are test failures if all we
+  // do is check function_exists('theme').
+  return (drupal_get_bootstrap_phase() != DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL) ? theme('link', $variables) : theme_link($variables);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Format an internal Drupal link.
+ *
+ * @param $variables
+ *   A keyed array with 'text', 'path', and 'options'.
+ *   @see l() for documentation about these.
+ * 
+ * @return
+ *   an HTML string containing a link to the given path.
+ * 
+ * @ingroup themeable
+ * 
+ * @todo
+ *   If it's never possible for l() to be called without theme.inc loaded,
+ *   then move this function to theme.inc.
+ */
+function theme_link($variables) {
+  $text = $variables['text'];
+  $path = $variables['path'];
+  $options = $variables['options'];
   global $language_url;
 
   // Merge in defaults.
@@ -4846,6 +4877,9 @@ function drupal_common_theme() {
     'status_messages' => array(
       'arguments' => array('display' => NULL),
     ),
+    'link' => array(
+      'arguments' => array('text' => NULL, 'path' => NULL, 'options' => array()),
+    ),
     'links' => array(
       'arguments' => array('links' => NULL, 'attributes' => array('class' => array('links')), 'heading' => array()),
     ),