diff --git a/src/libstd/sys/unix/fd.rs b/src/libstd/sys/unix/fd.rs
index 67546d06b4e55..4830e38d6a92f 100644
--- a/src/libstd/sys/unix/fd.rs
+++ b/src/libstd/sys/unix/fd.rs
@@ -154,6 +154,13 @@ impl FileDesc {
         }
     }
 
+    #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+    pub fn get_cloexec(&self) -> io::Result<bool> {
+        unsafe {
+            Ok((cvt(libc::fcntl(self.fd, libc::F_GETFD))? & libc::FD_CLOEXEC) != 0)
+        }
+    }
+
     #[cfg(not(any(target_env = "newlib",
                   target_os = "solaris",
                   target_os = "emscripten",
diff --git a/src/libstd/sys/unix/fs.rs b/src/libstd/sys/unix/fs.rs
index a1ca839dc1872..77968ffdedf37 100644
--- a/src/libstd/sys/unix/fs.rs
+++ b/src/libstd/sys/unix/fs.rs
@@ -441,15 +441,48 @@ impl File {
 
         // Currently the standard library supports Linux 2.6.18 which did not
         // have the O_CLOEXEC flag (passed above). If we're running on an older
-        // Linux kernel then the flag is just ignored by the OS, so we continue
-        // to explicitly ask for a CLOEXEC fd here.
+        // Linux kernel then the flag is just ignored by the OS. After we open
+        // the first file, we check whether it has CLOEXEC set. If it doesn't,
+        // we will explicitly ask for a CLOEXEC fd for every further file we
+        // open, if it does, we will skip that step.
         //
         // The CLOEXEC flag, however, is supported on versions of macOS/BSD/etc
         // that we support, so we only do this on Linux currently.
-        if cfg!(target_os = "linux") {
-            fd.set_cloexec()?;
+        #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+        fn ensure_cloexec(fd: &FileDesc) -> io::Result<()> {
+            use sync::atomic::{AtomicUsize, Ordering};
+
+            const OPEN_CLOEXEC_UNKNOWN: usize = 0;
+            const OPEN_CLOEXEC_SUPPORTED: usize = 1;
+            const OPEN_CLOEXEC_NOTSUPPORTED: usize = 2;
+            static OPEN_CLOEXEC: AtomicUsize = AtomicUsize::new(OPEN_CLOEXEC_UNKNOWN);
+
+            let need_to_set;
+            match OPEN_CLOEXEC.load(Ordering::Relaxed) {
+                OPEN_CLOEXEC_UNKNOWN => {
+                    need_to_set = !fd.get_cloexec()?;
+                    OPEN_CLOEXEC.store(if need_to_set {
+                        OPEN_CLOEXEC_NOTSUPPORTED
+                    } else {
+                        OPEN_CLOEXEC_SUPPORTED
+                    }, Ordering::Relaxed);
+                },
+                OPEN_CLOEXEC_SUPPORTED => need_to_set = false,
+                OPEN_CLOEXEC_NOTSUPPORTED => need_to_set = true,
+                _ => unreachable!(),
+            }
+            if need_to_set {
+                fd.set_cloexec()?;
+            }
+            Ok(())
+        }
+
+        #[cfg(not(target_os = "linux"))]
+        fn ensure_cloexec(_: &FileDesc) -> io::Result<()> {
+            Ok(())
         }
 
+        ensure_cloexec(&fd)?;
         Ok(File(fd))
     }