diff --git a/common/exechelp-posix.c b/common/exechelp-posix.c
index a7a9a929d..aefb6539c 100644
--- a/common/exechelp-posix.c
+++ b/common/exechelp-posix.c
@@ -278,7 +278,7 @@ get_all_open_fds (void)
 static void
 do_exec (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
          int fd_in, int fd_out, int fd_err,
-         void (*preexec)(void) )
+         int *except, void (*preexec)(void) )
 {
   char **arg_list;
   int i, j;
@@ -324,7 +324,7 @@ do_exec (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
     }
 
   /* Close all other files. */
-  close_all_fds (3, NULL);
+  close_all_fds (3, except);
 
   if (preexec)
     preexec ();
@@ -420,7 +420,7 @@ gnupg_create_pipe (int filedes[2])
 /* Fork and exec the PGMNAME, see exechelp.h for details.  */
 gpg_error_t
 gnupg_spawn_process (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
-                     void (*preexec)(void), unsigned int flags,
+                     int *except, void (*preexec)(void), unsigned int flags,
                      estream_t *r_infp,
                      estream_t *r_outfp,
                      estream_t *r_errfp,
@@ -525,7 +525,8 @@ gnupg_spawn_process (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
       gcry_control (GCRYCTL_TERM_SECMEM);
       es_fclose (outfp);
       es_fclose (errfp);
-      do_exec (pgmname, argv, inpipe[0], outpipe[1], errpipe[1], preexec);
+      do_exec (pgmname, argv, inpipe[0], outpipe[1], errpipe[1],
+               except, preexec);
       /*NOTREACHED*/
     }
 
@@ -575,7 +576,7 @@ gnupg_spawn_process_fd (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
     {
       gcry_control (GCRYCTL_TERM_SECMEM);
       /* Run child. */
-      do_exec (pgmname, argv, infd, outfd, errfd, NULL);
+      do_exec (pgmname, argv, infd, outfd, errfd, NULL, NULL);
       /*NOTREACHED*/
     }
 
@@ -728,7 +729,7 @@ gnupg_spawn_process_detached (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
         for (i=0; envp[i]; i++)
           putenv (xstrdup (envp[i]));
 
-      do_exec (pgmname, argv, -1, -1, -1, NULL);
+      do_exec (pgmname, argv, -1, -1, -1, NULL, NULL);
 
       /*NOTREACHED*/
     }
diff --git a/common/exechelp-w32.c b/common/exechelp-w32.c
index a8a8b45c5..b2d2457f6 100644
--- a/common/exechelp-w32.c
+++ b/common/exechelp-w32.c
@@ -357,7 +357,7 @@ gnupg_create_pipe (int filedes[2])
 /* Fork and exec the PGMNAME, see exechelp.h for details.  */
 gpg_error_t
 gnupg_spawn_process (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
-                     void (*preexec)(void), unsigned int flags,
+                     int *except, void (*preexec)(void), unsigned int flags,
                      estream_t *r_infp,
                      estream_t *r_outfp,
                      estream_t *r_errfp,
@@ -388,6 +388,8 @@ gnupg_spawn_process (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
   es_syshd_t syshd;
   gpg_err_source_t errsource = default_errsource;
 
+  (void)except; /* Not yet used.  */
+
   if (r_infp)
     *r_infp = NULL;
   if (r_outfp)
diff --git a/common/exechelp-w32ce.c b/common/exechelp-w32ce.c
index 06aa6bcb2..9e72ceff8 100644
--- a/common/exechelp-w32ce.c
+++ b/common/exechelp-w32ce.c
@@ -515,7 +515,7 @@ create_process (const char *pgmname, const char *cmdline,
 /* Fork and exec the PGMNAME, see exechelp.h for details.  */
 gpg_error_t
 gnupg_spawn_process (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
-                     void (*preexec)(void), unsigned int flags,
+                     int *except, void (*preexec)(void), unsigned int flags,
                      estream_t *r_infp,
                      estream_t *r_outfp,
                      estream_t *r_errfp,
@@ -541,6 +541,7 @@ gnupg_spawn_process (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
   estream_t errfp = NULL;
   gpg_err_source_t errsource = default_errsource;
 
+  (void)except; /* Not yet used.  */
   (void)preexec;
   (void)flags;
 
diff --git a/common/exechelp.h b/common/exechelp.h
index d6ef5f062..c43cd25f1 100644
--- a/common/exechelp.h
+++ b/common/exechelp.h
@@ -90,6 +90,10 @@ gpg_error_t gnupg_create_pipe (int filedes[2]);
    If PREEXEC is not NULL, the given function will be called right
    before the exec.
 
+   IF EXCEPT is not NULL, it is expected to be an ordered list of file
+   descriptors, terminated by an entry with the value (-1).  These
+   file descriptors won't be closed before spawning a new program.
+
    Returns 0 on success or an error code.  Calling gnupg_wait_process
    and gnupg_release_process is required if the function succeeded.
 
@@ -116,7 +120,7 @@ gpg_error_t gnupg_create_pipe (int filedes[2]);
  */
 gpg_error_t
 gnupg_spawn_process (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
-                     void (*preexec)(void), unsigned int flags,
+                     int *execpt, void (*preexec)(void), unsigned int flags,
                      estream_t *r_infp,
                      estream_t *r_outfp,
                      estream_t *r_errfp,
diff --git a/common/exectool.c b/common/exectool.c
index 9ba336dcd..953c34af0 100644
--- a/common/exectool.c
+++ b/common/exectool.c
@@ -188,7 +188,8 @@ copy_buffer_do_copy (struct copy_buffer *c, estream_t source, estream_t sink)
   if (c->nread == 0)
     return 0;	/* Done copying.  */
 
-  err = es_write (sink, c->writep, c->nread, &nwritten);
+
+  err = sink? es_write (sink, c->writep, c->nread, &nwritten) : 0;
   if (err)
     {
       if (errno == EAGAIN)
@@ -202,7 +203,7 @@ copy_buffer_do_copy (struct copy_buffer *c, estream_t source, estream_t sink)
   c->nread -= nwritten;
   assert (c->writep - c->buffer <= sizeof c->buffer);
 
-  if (es_fflush (sink) && errno != EAGAIN)
+  if (sink && es_fflush (sink) && errno != EAGAIN)
     err = my_error_from_syserror ();
 
   return err;
@@ -228,36 +229,80 @@ copy_buffer_flush (struct copy_buffer *c, estream_t sink)
 
 
 /* Run the program PGMNAME with the command line arguments given in
-   the NULL terminates array ARGV.  If INPUT is not NULL it will be
-   fed to stdin of the process.  stderr is logged using log_info and
-   the process' stdout is written to OUTPUT.  On error a diagnostic is
-   printed, and an error code returned.  */
+ * the NULL terminates array ARGV.  If INPUT is not NULL it will be
+ * fed to stdin of the process.  stderr is logged using log_info and
+ * the process' stdout is written to OUTPUT.  If OUTPUT is NULL the
+ * output is discarded.  If INEXTRA is given, an additional input
+ * stream will be passed to the child; to tell the child about this
+ * ARGV is scanned and the first occurrence of an argument
+ * "-&@INEXTRA@" is replaced by the concatenation of "-&" and the
+ * child's file descriptor of the pipe created for the INEXTRA stream.
+ *
+ * On error a diagnostic is printed and an error code returned.  */
 gpg_error_t
 gnupg_exec_tool_stream (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
-                        estream_t input,
+                        estream_t input, estream_t inextra,
                         estream_t output)
 {
   gpg_error_t err;
   pid_t pid;
   estream_t infp = NULL;
+  estream_t extrafp = NULL;
   estream_t outfp, errfp;
-  es_poll_t fds[3];
+  es_poll_t fds[4];
+  int exceptclose[2];
+  int extrapipe[2] = {-1, -1};
+  char extrafdbuf[20];
+  const char *argsave = NULL;
+  int argsaveidx;
   int count;
   read_and_log_buffer_t fderrstate;
-  struct copy_buffer cpbuf[2];
+  struct copy_buffer cpbuf_in, cpbuf_out, cpbuf_extra; /* Fixme: malloc them. */
 
   memset (fds, 0, sizeof fds);
   memset (&fderrstate, 0, sizeof fderrstate);
-  copy_buffer_init (&cpbuf[0]);
-  copy_buffer_init (&cpbuf[1]);
+  copy_buffer_init (&cpbuf_in);
+  copy_buffer_init (&cpbuf_out);
+  copy_buffer_init (&cpbuf_extra);
+
+  if (inextra)
+    {
+      err = gnupg_create_outbound_pipe (extrapipe, &extrafp, 1);
+      if (err)
+        {
+          log_error ("error running outbound pipe for extra fp: %s\n",
+                     gpg_strerror (err));
+          return err;
+        }
+      exceptclose[0] = extrapipe[0]; /* Do not close in child. */
+      exceptclose[1] = -1;
+      /* Now find the argument marker and replace by the pipe's fd.
+         Yeah, that is an ugly non-thread safe hack but it safes us to
+         create a copy of the array.  */
+      snprintf (extrafdbuf, sizeof extrafdbuf, "-&%d", extrapipe[0]);
+      for (argsaveidx=0; argv[argsaveidx]; argsaveidx++)
+        if (!strcmp (argv[argsaveidx], "-&@INEXTRA@"))
+          {
+            argsave = argv[argsaveidx];
+            argv[argsaveidx] = extrafdbuf;
+            break;
+          }
+    }
+  else
+    exceptclose[0] = -1;
 
   err = gnupg_spawn_process (pgmname, argv,
-                             NULL, GNUPG_SPAWN_NONBLOCK,
+                             exceptclose, NULL, GNUPG_SPAWN_NONBLOCK,
                              input? &infp : NULL,
                              &outfp, &errfp, &pid);
+  if (extrapipe[0] != -1)
+    close (extrapipe[0]);
+  if (argsave)
+    argv[argsaveidx] = argsave;
   if (err)
     {
       log_error ("error running '%s': %s\n", pgmname, gpg_strerror (err));
+      es_fclose (extrafp);
       return err;
     }
 
@@ -271,6 +316,11 @@ gnupg_exec_tool_stream (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
   fds[1].want_read = 1;
   fds[2].stream = errfp;
   fds[2].want_read = 1;
+  fds[3].stream = extrafp;
+  fds[3].want_write = 1;
+  if (!inextra)
+    fds[3].ignore = 1;
+
   /* Now read as long as we have something to poll.  We continue
      reading even after EOF or error on stdout so that we get the
      other error messages or remaining outut.  */
@@ -291,7 +341,7 @@ gnupg_exec_tool_stream (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
 
       if (fds[0].got_write)
         {
-          err = copy_buffer_do_copy (&cpbuf[0], input, fds[0].stream);
+          err = copy_buffer_do_copy (&cpbuf_in, input, fds[0].stream);
           if (err)
             {
               log_error ("error feeding data to '%s': %s\n",
@@ -301,7 +351,7 @@ gnupg_exec_tool_stream (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
 
           if (es_feof (input))
             {
-              err = copy_buffer_flush (&cpbuf[0], fds[0].stream);
+              err = copy_buffer_flush (&cpbuf_in, fds[0].stream);
               if (err)
                 {
                   log_error ("error feeding data to '%s': %s\n",
@@ -314,9 +364,35 @@ gnupg_exec_tool_stream (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
             }
         }
 
+      if (fds[3].got_write)
+        {
+          log_assert (inextra);
+          err = copy_buffer_do_copy (&cpbuf_extra, inextra, fds[3].stream);
+          if (err)
+            {
+              log_error ("error feeding data to '%s': %s\n",
+                         pgmname, gpg_strerror (err));
+              goto leave;
+            }
+
+          if (es_feof (inextra))
+            {
+              err = copy_buffer_flush (&cpbuf_extra, fds[3].stream);
+              if (err)
+                {
+                  log_error ("error feeding data to '%s': %s\n",
+                             pgmname, gpg_strerror (err));
+                  goto leave;
+                }
+
+              fds[3].ignore = 1; /* ready.  */
+              es_fclose (extrafp); extrafp = NULL;
+            }
+        }
+
       if (fds[1].got_read)
         {
-          err = copy_buffer_do_copy (&cpbuf[1], fds[1].stream, output);
+          err = copy_buffer_do_copy (&cpbuf_out, fds[1].stream, output);
           if (err)
             {
               log_error ("error reading data from '%s': %s\n",
@@ -329,7 +405,7 @@ gnupg_exec_tool_stream (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
         read_and_log_stderr (&fderrstate, fds + 2);
     }
 
-  err = copy_buffer_flush (&cpbuf[1], output);
+  err = copy_buffer_flush (&cpbuf_out, output);
   if (err)
     {
       log_error ("error reading data from '%s': %s\n",
@@ -339,6 +415,7 @@ gnupg_exec_tool_stream (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
 
   read_and_log_stderr (&fderrstate, NULL); /* Flush.  */
   es_fclose (infp); infp = NULL;
+  es_fclose (extrafp); extrafp = NULL;
   es_fclose (outfp); outfp = NULL;
   es_fclose (errfp); errfp = NULL;
 
@@ -350,14 +427,17 @@ gnupg_exec_tool_stream (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
     gnupg_kill_process (pid);
 
   es_fclose (infp);
+  es_fclose (extrafp);
   es_fclose (outfp);
   es_fclose (errfp);
   if (pid != (pid_t)(-1))
     gnupg_wait_process (pgmname, pid, 1, NULL);
   gnupg_release_process (pid);
 
-  copy_buffer_shred (&cpbuf[0]);
-  copy_buffer_shred (&cpbuf[1]);
+  copy_buffer_shred (&cpbuf_in);
+  copy_buffer_shred (&cpbuf_out);
+  if (inextra)
+    copy_buffer_shred (&cpbuf_extra);
   return err;
 }
 
@@ -408,7 +488,7 @@ gnupg_exec_tool (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
       goto leave;
     }
 
-  err = gnupg_exec_tool_stream (pgmname, argv, input, output);
+  err = gnupg_exec_tool_stream (pgmname, argv, input, NULL, output);
   if (err)
     goto leave;
 
diff --git a/common/exectool.h b/common/exectool.h
index d9439aa73..21bc177a1 100644
--- a/common/exectool.h
+++ b/common/exectool.h
@@ -48,9 +48,9 @@ gpg_error_t gnupg_exec_tool (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
    the NULL terminates array ARGV.  If INPUT is not NULL it will be
    fed to stdin of the process.  stderr is logged using log_info and
    the process' stdout is written to OUTPUT.  On error a diagnostic is
-   printed, and an error code returned.  */
+   printed, and an error code returned.  INEXTRA is reserved. */
 gpg_error_t gnupg_exec_tool_stream (const char *pgmname, const char *argv[],
-				 estream_t input,
-				 estream_t output);
+                                    estream_t input, estream_t inextra,
+                                    estream_t output);
 
 #endif /* GNUPG_COMMON_EXECTOOL_H */
diff --git a/tools/gpgconf-comp.c b/tools/gpgconf-comp.c
index 5d4a26a5c..3d456a968 100644
--- a/tools/gpgconf-comp.c
+++ b/tools/gpgconf-comp.c
@@ -1626,7 +1626,7 @@ gc_component_check_options (int component, estream_t out, const char *conf_file)
 
   result = 0;
   errlines = NULL;
-  err = gnupg_spawn_process (pgmname, argv, NULL, 0,
+  err = gnupg_spawn_process (pgmname, argv, NULL, NULL, 0,
                              NULL, NULL, &errfp, &pid);
   if (err)
     result |= 1; /* Program could not be run.  */
@@ -1965,7 +1965,7 @@ retrieve_options_from_program (gc_component_t component, gc_backend_t backend)
   argv[0] = "--gpgconf-list";
   argv[1] = NULL;
 
-  err = gnupg_spawn_process (pgmname, argv, NULL, 0,
+  err = gnupg_spawn_process (pgmname, argv, NULL, NULL, 0,
                              NULL, &outfp, NULL, &pid);
   if (err)
     {
diff --git a/tools/gpgtar-create.c b/tools/gpgtar-create.c
index f7c8b1aa3..d615fd38d 100644
--- a/tools/gpgtar-create.c
+++ b/tools/gpgtar-create.c
@@ -932,7 +932,7 @@ gpgtar_create (char **inpattern, int encrypt, int sign)
         }
 
       err = gnupg_exec_tool_stream (opt.gpg_program, argv,
-                                    outstream, cipher_stream);
+                                    outstream, NULL, cipher_stream);
       xfree (argv);
       if (err)
         goto leave;
diff --git a/tools/gpgtar-extract.c b/tools/gpgtar-extract.c
index 3ee73ef9b..c4bf44064 100644
--- a/tools/gpgtar-extract.c
+++ b/tools/gpgtar-extract.c
@@ -327,7 +327,7 @@ gpgtar_extract (const char *filename, int decrypt)
         }
 
       err = gnupg_exec_tool_stream (opt.gpg_program, argv,
-                                    cipher_stream, stream);
+                                    cipher_stream, NULL, stream);
       xfree (argv);
       if (err)
         goto leave;
diff --git a/tools/gpgtar-list.c b/tools/gpgtar-list.c
index 930712a7f..a3f85aceb 100644
--- a/tools/gpgtar-list.c
+++ b/tools/gpgtar-list.c
@@ -327,7 +327,7 @@ gpgtar_list (const char *filename, int decrypt)
         }
 
       err = gnupg_exec_tool_stream (opt.gpg_program, argv,
-                                    cipher_stream, stream);
+                                    cipher_stream, NULL, stream);
       xfree (argv);
       if (err)
         goto leave;