diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/utils/popen.rb b/Library/Homebrew/utils/popen.rb
index 4e03711a16..f30a2a0fed 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/utils/popen.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/utils/popen.rb
@@ -1,20 +1,20 @@
 module Utils
-  def self.popen_read(*args, &block)
-    popen(args, "rb", &block)
+  def self.popen_read(*args, **options, &block)
+    popen(args, "rb", options, &block)
   end
 
-  def self.popen_write(*args, &block)
-    popen(args, "wb", &block)
+  def self.popen_write(*args, **options, &block)
+    popen(args, "wb", options, &block)
   end
 
-  def self.popen(args, mode)
+  def self.popen(args, mode, options = {})
     IO.popen("-", mode) do |pipe|
       if pipe
         return pipe.read unless block_given?
         yield pipe
       else
-        $stderr.reopen("/dev/null", "w")
-        exec(*args)
+        options[:err] ||= :close
+        exec(*args, options)
       end
     end
   end