diff --git a/signal.c b/signal.c
index 3cfa1ec6b44f6719dcf0f1c95e1a18add5dc6b8f..421ddae16844c2b9dcd5121ed403a477eb09299e 100644
--- a/signal.c
+++ b/signal.c
@@ -167,21 +167,26 @@ static void sig_cancel_signal(oop_source *source,int sig,
 	}
 }
 
+static int fcntl_flag(int fd, int get_op, int set_op, int val) {
+	const int flags = fcntl(fd,get_op,0);
+	if (flags < 0) return -1;
+	return fcntl(fd,set_op,flags|val);
+}
+
 oop_adapter_signal *oop_signal_new(oop_source *source) {
 	int i;
 	oop_adapter_signal * const s = oop_malloc(sizeof(*s));
 	if (NULL == s) return NULL;
 	assert(NULL != source);
-	if (pipe(s->pipefd)) {
+	if (pipe(s->pipefd)
+	||  fcntl_flag(s->pipefd[0],F_GETFD,F_SETFD,FD_CLOEXEC)
+	||  fcntl_flag(s->pipefd[1],F_GETFD,F_SETFD,FD_CLOEXEC)
+	||  fcntl_flag(s->pipefd[0],F_GETFL,F_SETFL,O_NONBLOCK)
+	||  fcntl_flag(s->pipefd[1],F_GETFL,F_SETFL,O_NONBLOCK)) {
 		oop_free(s);
 		return NULL;
 	}
 
-        fcntl(s->pipefd[0],F_SETFD,FD_CLOEXEC);
-        fcntl(s->pipefd[1],F_SETFD,FD_CLOEXEC);
-        fcntl(s->pipefd[0],F_SETFL,O_NONBLOCK);
-        fcntl(s->pipefd[1],F_SETFL,O_NONBLOCK);
-
 	s->oop.on_fd = sig_on_fd;
 	s->oop.cancel_fd = sig_cancel_fd;
 	s->oop.on_time = sig_on_time;