diff --git a/authors.txt b/authors.txt
index dc2e617ae..9b2ea7269 100644
--- a/authors.txt
+++ b/authors.txt
@@ -80,3 +80,4 @@ Jon Turney
 Wade Berrier
 Richard Hughes
 Rafael Fontenelle
+Michael Olbrich
diff --git a/mesonbuild/mesonlib.py b/mesonbuild/mesonlib.py
index 5377d8e8f..0a8478b95 100644
--- a/mesonbuild/mesonlib.py
+++ b/mesonbuild/mesonlib.py
@@ -504,6 +504,7 @@ def expand_arguments(args):
 
 def Popen_safe(args, write=None, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, **kwargs):
     p = subprocess.Popen(args, universal_newlines=True,
+                         close_fds=False,
                          stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
                          stderr=stderr, **kwargs)
     o, e = p.communicate(write)