diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 03b7a2be9..abf33630a 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 	* Source/win32/NSMessagePort.m: Don't use NSLog() to report error
 	when writing to mailslot ... it's usually just that the remote
 	end has terminated, so invalidating the port silently is better.
+	* Source/GSFileHandle.m: Adjust code to deal with fstat() returning
+	a failure on windows if the descriptor is a pipe/socket.
 
 2009-06-13 Richard Frith-Macdonald <rfm@gnu.org>
 
diff --git a/Source/GSFileHandle.m b/Source/GSFileHandle.m
index fe30db491..b513e2d58 100644
--- a/Source/GSFileHandle.m
+++ b/Source/GSFileHandle.m
@@ -1096,8 +1096,20 @@ NSString * const GSSOCKSRecvAddr = @"GSSOCKSRecvAddr";
 
       if (fstat(desc, &sbuf) < 0)
 	{
+#if	defined(__MINGW32__)
+	  /* On windows, an fstat will fail if the descriptor is a pipe
+	   * or socket, so we simply mark the descriptor as not being a
+	   * standard file.
+	   */
+	  isStandardFile = NO;
+#else
+	  /* This should never happen on unix.  If it does, we have somehow
+	   * ended up with a bad descriptor.
+	   */
           NSLog(@"unable to get status of descriptor %d - %@",
 	    desc, [NSError _last]);
+	  isStandardFile = NO;
+#endif
 	}
       else
 	{