diff --git a/Lib/test/support.py b/Lib/test/support.py
index 03af378..015564b 100644
--- a/Lib/test/support.py
+++ b/Lib/test/support.py
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@
     "get_attribute", "swap_item", "swap_attr", "requires_IEEE_754",
     "TestHandler", "Matcher", "can_symlink", "skip_unless_symlink",
     "import_fresh_module", "requires_zlib", "PIPE_MAX_SIZE", "failfast",
+    "anticipate_failure"
     ]
 
 class Error(Exception):
@@ -127,6 +128,17 @@
     return saved
 
 
+def anticipate_failure(condition):
+    """Decorator to mark a test that is known to be broken in some cases
+
+       Any use of this decorator should have a comment identifying the
+       associated tracker issue.
+    """
+    if condition:
+        return unittest.expectedFailure
+    return lambda f: f
+
+
 def import_fresh_module(name, fresh=(), blocked=(), deprecated=False):
     """Imports and returns a module, deliberately bypassing the sys.modules cache
     and importing a fresh copy of the module. Once the import is complete,
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_socket.py b/Lib/test/test_socket.py
index 83351b9..f47e61e 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_socket.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_socket.py
@@ -167,6 +167,9 @@
             raise TypeError("test_func must be a callable function")
         try:
             test_func()
+        except unittest._ExpectedFailure:
+            # We deliberately ignore expected failures
+            pass
         except BaseException as e:
             self.queue.put(e)
         finally:
@@ -2090,6 +2093,8 @@
     def _testFDPassCMSG_LEN(self):
         self.createAndSendFDs(1)
 
+    # Issue #12958: The following test has problems on Mac OS X
+    @support.anticipate_failure(sys.platform == "darwin")
     @requireAttrs(socket, "CMSG_SPACE")
     def testFDPassSeparate(self):
         # Pass two FDs in two separate arrays.  Arrays may be combined
@@ -2099,6 +2104,7 @@
                              maxcmsgs=2)
 
     @testFDPassSeparate.client_skip
+    @support.anticipate_failure(sys.platform == "darwin")
     def _testFDPassSeparate(self):
         fd0, fd1 = self.newFDs(2)
         self.assertEqual(
@@ -2110,6 +2116,8 @@
                                           array.array("i", [fd1]))]),
             len(MSG))
 
+    # Issue #12958: The following test has problems on Mac OS X
+    @support.anticipate_failure(sys.platform == "darwin")
     @requireAttrs(socket, "CMSG_SPACE")
     def testFDPassSeparateMinSpace(self):
         # Pass two FDs in two separate arrays, receiving them into the
@@ -2121,6 +2129,7 @@
                              maxcmsgs=2, ignoreflags=socket.MSG_CTRUNC)
 
     @testFDPassSeparateMinSpace.client_skip
+    @support.anticipate_failure(sys.platform == "darwin")
     def _testFDPassSeparateMinSpace(self):
         fd0, fd1 = self.newFDs(2)
         self.assertEqual(
@@ -3024,9 +3033,12 @@
         self.assertNotIsInstance(cm.exception, socket.timeout)
         self.assertEqual(cm.exception.errno, errno.EINTR)
 
+    # Issue #12958: The following tests have problems on Mac OS X
+    @support.anticipate_failure(sys.platform == "darwin")
     def testInterruptedSendTimeout(self):
         self.checkInterruptedSend(self.serv_conn.send, b"a"*512)
 
+    @support.anticipate_failure(sys.platform == "darwin")
     def testInterruptedSendtoTimeout(self):
         # Passing an actual address here as Python's wrapper for
         # sendto() doesn't allow passing a zero-length one; POSIX
@@ -3035,6 +3047,7 @@
         self.checkInterruptedSend(self.serv_conn.sendto, b"a"*512,
                                   self.serv_addr)
 
+    @support.anticipate_failure(sys.platform == "darwin")
     @requireAttrs(socket.socket, "sendmsg")
     def testInterruptedSendmsgTimeout(self):
         self.checkInterruptedSend(self.serv_conn.sendmsg, [b"a"*512])