diff --git a/libs/pbd/file_manager.cc b/libs/pbd/file_manager.cc
index a71ffca190..fb3227a922 100644
--- a/libs/pbd/file_manager.cc
+++ b/libs/pbd/file_manager.cc
@@ -289,6 +289,9 @@ StdioFileDescriptor::open ()
 	/* we must have a lock on the FileManager's mutex */
 	
 	_file = fopen (_path.c_str(), _mode.c_str());
+	if (_file) {
+		fcntl(fileno(_file), F_SETFD, fcntl(fileno(_file), F_GETFD) | FD_CLOEXEC);
+	}
 	return (_file == 0);
 }
 
diff --git a/libs/pbd/sndfile_manager.cc b/libs/pbd/sndfile_manager.cc
index d1dcd05256..4977f21dfd 100644
--- a/libs/pbd/sndfile_manager.cc
+++ b/libs/pbd/sndfile_manager.cc
@@ -90,7 +90,12 @@ SndFileDescriptor::open ()
 {
 	/* we must have a lock on the FileManager's mutex */
 	
-	_sndfile = sf_open (_path.c_str(), _writeable ? SFM_RDWR : SFM_READ, _info);
+	int fd = ::open(_path.c_str(), O_LARGEFILE | (_writeable ? (O_RDWR) : O_RDONLY));
+	if (fd == -1) return false;
+	fcntl(fd, F_SETFD, fcntl(fd, F_GETFD) | FD_CLOEXEC);
+
+	_sndfile = sf_open_fd (fd, _writeable ? SFM_RDWR : SFM_READ, _info, 1);
+
 	return (_sndfile == 0);
 }