diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index e2a040a8c..d426f8025 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+Wed Jan 21 17:37:00 1998  Richard Frith-Macdonald  <richard@brainstorm.co.uk>
+
+	* Tools/defaults.m: Fixed bug in handling 'write' operations reading
+	info from stdin - now puts all values into the database correctly.
+
+	* src/TcpPort.m: ([+newForReceivingFromPortNumber:]) added code to
+	perform retries if the kernel freaks out when asked to select the
+	port to bind to - this has happened to me on linux!
+
 Wed Jan 21 11:45:00 1998  Richard Frith-Macdonald  <richard@brainstorm.co.uk>
 
 	* src/GetDefEncoding.m: Modified GetDefEncoding() to us the NSString
diff --git a/Source/TcpPort.m b/Source/TcpPort.m
index c9c1118bc..9b99e94b4 100644
--- a/Source/TcpPort.m
+++ b/Source/TcpPort.m
@@ -752,9 +752,31 @@ static NSMapTable* port_number_2_port;
 	      sizeof (p->_listening_address)) 
 	< 0)
       {
-	[NSException raise: NSInternalInconsistencyException
-	  format: @"[TcpInPort +newForReceivingFromPortNumber:] bind(): %s",
-	  strerror(errno)];
+	BOOL	ok = NO;
+	/* bind() sometimes seems to fail when given a port of zero - this
+	 * should really never happen, so we retry a few times in case the
+	 * kernel has had a temporary brainstorm.
+	 */
+	if (n == 0) {
+	  int	count;
+
+	  for (count = 0; count < 10; count++) {
+	    memset(&p->_listening_address, 0, sizeof(p->_listening_address));
+	    p->_listening_address.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl (INADDR_ANY);
+	    p->_listening_address.sin_family = AF_INET;
+	    if (bind (p->_port_socket,
+	      (struct sockaddr*) &(p->_listening_address),
+	      sizeof (p->_listening_address)) == 0) {
+	      ok = YES;
+	      break;
+	    }
+	  }
+	}
+	if (ok == NO) {
+	  [NSException raise: NSInternalInconsistencyException
+	    format: @"[TcpInPort +newForReceivingFromPortNumber:] bind(): %s",
+	    strerror(errno)];
+	}
       }
 
     /* If the caller didn't specify a port number, it was chosen for us.
diff --git a/Tools/defaults.m b/Tools/defaults.m
index 4c61e6bbb..ca7a48e7d 100644
--- a/Tools/defaults.m
+++ b/Tools/defaults.m
@@ -427,6 +427,7 @@ property list which is set as the value of a default.\n\n");
 		    domain = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithCapacity:1];
 		}
 		[domain setObject: obj forKey: name];
+	        [defs setPersistentDomain: domain forName: owner];
 	    }
 	}
 	else {
@@ -469,8 +470,8 @@ property list which is set as the value of a default.\n\n");
 		    exit(0);
 		}
 	    }
+	    [defs setPersistentDomain: domain forName: owner];
 	}
-	[defs setPersistentDomain: domain forName: owner];
 
 	if ([defs synchronize] == NO) {
 	    NSLog(@"defaults: unable to write to defaults database - %s\n",