diff --git a/tools/config.h.in b/tools/config.h.in
index 0bb2fe08a1..50ad60fcb0 100644
--- a/tools/config.h.in
+++ b/tools/config.h.in
@@ -39,6 +39,9 @@
 /* Define to 1 if you have the <memory.h> header file. */
 #undef HAVE_MEMORY_H
 
+/* Define to 1 if you have the `pipe2' function. */
+#undef HAVE_PIPE2
+
 /* pygrub enabled */
 #undef HAVE_PYGRUB
 
diff --git a/tools/configure b/tools/configure
index 459bfb5652..a6b43bfc60 100755
--- a/tools/configure
+++ b/tools/configure
@@ -9751,6 +9751,18 @@ if test "$ax_found" = "0"; then :
 fi
 
 
+for ac_func in pipe2
+do :
+  ac_fn_c_check_func "$LINENO" "pipe2" "ac_cv_func_pipe2"
+if test "x$ac_cv_func_pipe2" = xyes; then :
+  cat >>confdefs.h <<_ACEOF
+#define HAVE_PIPE2 1
+_ACEOF
+
+fi
+done
+
+
 cat >confcache <<\_ACEOF
 # This file is a shell script that caches the results of configure
 # tests run on this system so they can be shared between configure
diff --git a/tools/configure.ac b/tools/configure.ac
index 851887080c..ac0fdc4314 100644
--- a/tools/configure.ac
+++ b/tools/configure.ac
@@ -543,4 +543,6 @@ AS_IF([test "x$pvshim" = "xy"], [
 
 AX_FIND_HEADER([INCLUDE_ENDIAN_H], [endian.h sys/endian.h])
 
+AC_CHECK_FUNCS([pipe2])
+
 AC_OUTPUT()
diff --git a/tools/libs/store/xs.c b/tools/libs/store/xs.c
index 11a766c508..c8845b69e2 100644
--- a/tools/libs/store/xs.c
+++ b/tools/libs/store/xs.c
@@ -190,13 +190,27 @@ static bool set_cloexec(int fd)
 	return fcntl(fd, flags | FD_CLOEXEC) >= 0;
 }
 
+static int pipe_cloexec(int fds[2])
+{
+#if HAVE_PIPE2
+	return pipe2(fds, O_CLOEXEC);
+#else
+	if (pipe(fds) < 0)
+		return -1;
+	/* Best effort to set CLOEXEC.  Racy. */
+	set_cloexec(fds[0]);
+	set_cloexec(fds[1]);
+	return 0;
+#endif
+}
+
 int xs_fileno(struct xs_handle *h)
 {
 	char c = 0;
 
 	mutex_lock(&h->watch_mutex);
 
-	if ((h->watch_pipe[0] == -1) && (pipe(h->watch_pipe) != -1)) {
+	if ((h->watch_pipe[0] == -1) && (pipe_cloexec(h->watch_pipe) != -1)) {
 		/* Kick things off if the watch list is already non-empty. */
 		if (!XEN_TAILQ_EMPTY(&h->watch_list))
 			while (write(h->watch_pipe[1], &c, 1) != 1)