diff --git a/evutil.c b/evutil.c
index ce3ef31c..60e6986b 100644
--- a/evutil.c
+++ b/evutil.c
@@ -390,9 +390,11 @@ evutil_make_socket_closeonexec(evutil_socket_t fd)
 		event_warn("fcntl(%d, F_GETFD)", fd);
 		return -1;
 	}
-	if (fcntl(fd, F_SETFD, flags | FD_CLOEXEC) == -1) {
-		event_warn("fcntl(%d, F_SETFD)", fd);
-		return -1;
+	if (!(flags & FD_CLOEXEC)) {
+		if (fcntl(fd, F_SETFD, flags | FD_CLOEXEC) == -1) {
+			event_warn("fcntl(%d, F_SETFD)", fd);
+			return -1;
+		}
 	}
 #endif
 	return 0;