diff -r 7d94e4a68b91 asyncio/unix_events.py
--- a/asyncio/unix_events.py	Sun Oct 20 20:25:04 2013 -0700
+++ b/asyncio/unix_events.py	Mon Oct 21 10:07:38 2013 -0700
@@ -272,8 +272,9 @@
         self._loop = loop
         self._pipe = pipe
         self._fileno = pipe.fileno()
-        if not stat.S_ISFIFO(os.fstat(self._fileno).st_mode):
-            raise ValueError("Pipe transport is for pipes only.")
+        mode = os.fstat(self._fileno).st_mode
+        if not (stat.S_ISFIFO(mode) or stat.S_ISSOCK(mode)):
+            raise ValueError("Pipe transport is for pipes/sockets only.")
         _set_nonblocking(self._fileno)
         self._protocol = protocol
         self._buffer = []
@@ -432,8 +433,15 @@
         self._loop = loop
 
         self._pipes = {}
+        stdin_w = None
         if stdin == subprocess.PIPE:
             self._pipes[STDIN] = None
+            # Use a socket pair for stdin, since not all platforms
+            # support selecting read events on the write end of a
+            # socket (which we use in order to detect closing of the
+            # other end).  Notably this is needed on AIX, and works
+            # just fine on other platforms.
+            stdin, stdin_w = socket.socketpair()
         if stdout == subprocess.PIPE:
             self._pipes[STDOUT] = None
         if stderr == subprocess.PIPE:
@@ -445,6 +453,9 @@
         self._proc = subprocess.Popen(
             args, shell=shell, stdin=stdin, stdout=stdout, stderr=stderr,
             universal_newlines=False, bufsize=bufsize, **kwargs)
+        if stdin_w is not None:
+            stdin.close()
+            self._proc.stdin = open(stdin_w.detach(), 'rb', buffering=bufsize)
         self._extra['subprocess'] = self._proc
 
     def close(self):