diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/utils/tty.rb b/Library/Homebrew/utils/tty.rb
index 642a33b912..e872e64601 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/utils/tty.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/utils/tty.rb
@@ -6,7 +6,10 @@ module Tty
   end
 
   def width
-    (`/bin/stty size`.split[1] || 80).to_i
+    width = `/bin/stty size 2>/dev/null`.split[1]
+    width ||= `/usr/bin/tput cols 2>/dev/null`.split[0]
+    width ||= 80
+    width.to_i
   end
 
   def truncate(string)