diff -r ad1cc596bedb Lib/subprocess.py
--- a/Lib/subprocess.py	Wed Oct 24 23:43:02 2012 +0300
+++ b/Lib/subprocess.py	Sun Oct 28 17:35:45 2012 -0700
@@ -671,12 +671,33 @@
          c2pread, c2pwrite,
          errread, errwrite) = self._get_handles(stdin, stdout, stderr)
 
-        self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
-                            cwd, env, universal_newlines,
-                            startupinfo, creationflags, shell,
-                            p2cread, p2cwrite,
-                            c2pread, c2pwrite,
-                            errread, errwrite)
+        try:
+            self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
+                                cwd, env, universal_newlines,
+                                startupinfo, creationflags, shell,
+                                p2cread, p2cwrite,
+                                c2pread, c2pwrite,
+                                errread, errwrite)
+        except Exception:
+            # preserve original exception in case os.close raises
+            exc_type, exc_value, exc_trace = sys.exc_info()
+
+            to_close = []
+            # only close the pipes we created
+            if stdin == PIPE:
+                to_close.extend([p2cread, p2cwrite])
+            if stdout == PIPE:
+                to_close.extend([c2pread, c2pwrite])
+            if stderr == PIPE:
+                to_close.extend([errread, errwrite])
+
+            for fd in to_close:
+                try:
+                    os.close(fd)
+                except OSError:
+                    pass
+
+            raise exc_type, exc_value, exc_trace
 
         if mswindows:
             if p2cwrite is not None:
diff -r ad1cc596bedb Lib/test/test_subprocess.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py	Wed Oct 24 23:43:02 2012 +0300
+++ b/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py	Sun Oct 28 17:35:45 2012 -0700
@@ -58,6 +58,23 @@
         self.assertEqual(actual, expected, msg)
 
 
+class PopenTestException(Exception):
+    pass
+
+class PopenExecuteChildRaises(subprocess.Popen):
+    """ POpen subclass for testing cleanup of subprocess.PIPE filehandles when
+    _execute_child fails 
+    """
+    def _execute_child(self, args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
+                       cwd, env, universal_newlines,
+                       startupinfo, creationflags, shell,
+                       p2cread, p2cwrite,
+                       c2pread, c2pwrite,
+                       errread, errwrite):
+
+        raise PopenTestException("Forced Exception for Test")
+
+
 class ProcessTestCase(BaseTestCase):
 
     def test_call_seq(self):
@@ -632,6 +649,23 @@
         time.sleep(2)
         p.communicate("x" * 2**20)
 
+    # This test is Linux specific for simplicity to at least have
+    # some coverage.  It is not a platform specific bug.
+    @unittest.skipUnless(os.path.isdir('/proc/%d/fd' % os.getpid()),
+                         "Linux specific")
+    # Test for the fd leak reported in http://bugs.python.org/issue16327
+    def test_failed_child_execute_fd_leak(self):
+        fd_directory = '/proc/%d/fd' % os.getpid()
+        num_fds_before_popen = len(os.listdir(fd_directory))
+        with self.assertRaises(PopenTestException):
+            PopenExecuteChildRaises(
+                    [sys.executable, "-c", "print()"], stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
+                    stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
+
+        num_fds_after_exception = len(os.listdir(fd_directory))
+        self.assertEqual(num_fds_before_popen, num_fds_after_exception)
+
+
 # context manager
 class _SuppressCoreFiles(object):
     """Try to prevent core files from being created."""