diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog b/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
index 90441627b..f8217be34 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2005-12-20  Corinna Vinschen  <corinna@vinschen.de>
+
+	* winsup.h (flush_file_buffers): Declare new function.
+	(FLushFileBuffers): New define.
+	* miscfuncs.cc (flush_file_buffers): Define new function.
+
 2005-12-20  Christopher Faylor  <cgf@timesys.com>
 
 	* fhandler.h (fhandler_termios::fixup_after_exec): Make non-inlined.
diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/miscfuncs.cc b/winsup/cygwin/miscfuncs.cc
index 26686bd2b..474843a19 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/miscfuncs.cc
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/miscfuncs.cc
@@ -361,3 +361,14 @@ create_pipe (PHANDLE hr,PHANDLE hw, LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES sa, DWORD n)
       break;
   return false;
 }
+
+#undef FlushFileBuffers
+bool
+flush_file_buffers (HANDLE h)
+{
+  DWORD ftype = GetFileType (h);
+  /* Per MSDN, FlushFileBuffers on named pipes might block.  This is the last
+     we want it to do, especially when printing debug output  as when calling
+     system_printf. */
+  return (ftype != FILE_TYPE_PIPE) ? FlushFileBuffers (h) : true;
+}
diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/winsup.h b/winsup/cygwin/winsup.h
index 72d5aab22..080bb03c9 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/winsup.h
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/winsup.h
@@ -309,6 +309,8 @@ DWORD nice_to_winprio (int &) __attribute__ ((regparm (1)));
 bool __stdcall create_pipe (PHANDLE hr, PHANDLE, LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES, DWORD)
   __attribute__ ((regparm (3)));
 #define CreatePipe create_pipe
+bool __stdcall flush_file_buffers (HANDLE h) __attribute__ ((regparm (1)));
+#define FlushFileBuffers flush_file_buffers
 
 /**************************** Exports ******************************/