diff --git a/include/closestream.h b/include/closestream.h
index 83df1ee7d..41afbe208 100644
--- a/include/closestream.h
+++ b/include/closestream.h
@@ -35,11 +35,37 @@ close_stream(FILE * stream)
 	return 0;
 }
 
+static inline int
+flush_standard_stream(FILE *stream)
+{
+	int fd;
+
+	errno = 0;
+
+	if (ferror(stream) != 0 || fflush(stream) != 0)
+		goto error;
+
+	/*
+	 * Calling fflush is not sufficient on some filesystems
+	 * like e.g. NFS, which may defer the actual flush until
+	 * close. Calling fsync would help solve this, but would
+	 * probably result in a performance hit. Thus, we work
+	 * around this issue by calling close on a dup'd file
+	 * descriptor from the stream.
+	 */
+	if ((fd = fileno(stream)) < 0 || (fd = dup(fd)) < 0 || close(fd) != 0)
+		goto error;
+
+	return 0;
+error:
+	return (errno == EBADF) ? 0 : EOF;
+}
+
 /* Meant to be used atexit(close_stdout); */
 static inline void
 close_stdout(void)
 {
-	if (stdout && close_stream(stdout) != 0 && !(errno == EPIPE)) {
+	if (flush_standard_stream(stdout) != 0 && !(errno == EPIPE)) {
 		if (errno)
 			warn(_("write error"));
 		else
@@ -47,11 +73,8 @@ close_stdout(void)
 		_exit(CLOSE_EXIT_CODE);
 	}
 
-	if (stderr && close_stream(stderr) != 0)
+	if (flush_standard_stream(stderr) != 0)
 		_exit(CLOSE_EXIT_CODE);
-
-	stdout = NULL;
-	stderr = NULL;
 }
 
 static inline void