diff --git a/application.py b/application.py
index 6fa2281..50f9f2b 100755
--- a/application.py
+++ b/application.py
@@ -734,8 +734,13 @@ class Application(object):
     def run_pipe(self, args, b, name='*Output*', switch=True, modename=None):
         pipe = Popen(args=args, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=STDOUT)
         data = b.make_string().encode('utf-8')
-        pipe.stdin.write(data)
-        pipe.stdin.close()
+        try:
+            pipe.stdin.write(data)
+            pipe.stdin.close()
+        except IOError:
+            # sometimes the program will stop reading from stdin before we're
+            # done. this is fine and we should ignore the IOError.
+            pass
         output = pipe.stdout.read()
         status = pipe.wait()
         if callable(switch):