diff -r 0afa7b323abb Doc/library/socketserver.rst
--- a/Doc/library/socketserver.rst	Tue Jan 08 00:52:40 2013 +0100
+++ b/Doc/library/socketserver.rst	Wed Jan 09 00:59:44 2013 +0100
@@ -212,6 +212,20 @@ The server classes support the following
    :const:`False`, and can be set in subclasses to change the policy.
 
 
+.. attribute:: BaseServer.close_on_exec
+
+   If its value is :const:`True`, the close-on-exec flag will be set on the
+   listening socket. The default value is :const:`True` if the :mod:`fcntl`
+   module is available, :const:`False` otherwise.
+
+   :exc:`NotImplementedError` is raised by the constructor of the server if the
+   platform does not support close-on-exec flag.
+
+   Setting the flag is only atomic if the operating supports
+   :data:`socket.SOCK_CLOEXEC`.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 3.4
+
 .. attribute:: BaseServer.request_queue_size
 
    The size of the request queue.  If it takes a long time to process a single
diff -r 0afa7b323abb Lib/socketserver.py
--- a/Lib/socketserver.py	Tue Jan 08 00:52:40 2013 +0100
+++ b/Lib/socketserver.py	Wed Jan 09 00:59:44 2013 +0100
@@ -138,6 +138,10 @@ try:
     import threading
 except ImportError:
     import dummy_threading as threading
+try:
+    import fcntl
+except ImportError:
+    fcntl = None
 
 __all__ = ["TCPServer","UDPServer","ForkingUDPServer","ForkingTCPServer",
            "ThreadingUDPServer","ThreadingTCPServer","BaseRequestHandler",
@@ -194,6 +198,7 @@ class BaseServer:
     - address_family
     - socket_type
     - allow_reuse_address
+    - close_on_exec
 
     Instance variables:
 
@@ -365,6 +370,23 @@ class BaseServer:
         traceback.print_exc() # XXX But this goes to stderr!
         print('-'*40)
 
+def _set_cloexec(fd):
+    """
+    Set FD_CLOEXEC (close-on-exec) flag on the specified file descriptor
+    """
+    if fcntl is None:
+        raise NotImplementedError("close-on-exec flag is not supported on your platform")
+    if _set_cloexec.cloexec_works:
+        return
+    flags = fcntl.fcntl(fd, fcntl.F_GETFD)
+    if _set_cloexec.cloexec_works is None:
+        _set_cloexec.cloexec_works = bool(flags & fcntl.FD_CLOEXEC)
+        if _set_cloexec.cloexec_works:
+            # SOCK_CLOEXEC works
+            return
+        # SOCK_CLOEXEC doesn't work on Linux older than 2.6.27
+    fcntl.fcntl(fd, fcntl.F_SETFD, flags | fcntl.FD_CLOEXEC)
+_set_cloexec.cloexec_works = None if hasattr(socket, 'SOCK_CLOEXEC') else False
 
 class TCPServer(BaseServer):
 
@@ -404,6 +426,7 @@ class TCPServer(BaseServer):
     - socket_type
     - request_queue_size (only for stream sockets)
     - allow_reuse_address
+    - close_on_exec
 
     Instance variables:
 
@@ -421,11 +444,19 @@ class TCPServer(BaseServer):
 
     allow_reuse_address = False
 
+    close_on_exec = (fcntl is not None)
+
     def __init__(self, server_address, RequestHandlerClass, bind_and_activate=True):
         """Constructor.  May be extended, do not override."""
         BaseServer.__init__(self, server_address, RequestHandlerClass)
+        socket_type = self.socket_type
+        if self.close_on_exec and hasattr(socket, 'SOCK_CLOEXEC'):
+            socket_type |= socket.SOCK_CLOEXEC
         self.socket = socket.socket(self.address_family,
-                                    self.socket_type)
+                                    socket_type)
+        if self.close_on_exec:
+            _set_cloexec(self.socket.fileno())
+
         if bind_and_activate:
             self.server_bind()
             self.server_activate()
diff -r 0afa7b323abb Lib/test/test_socketserver.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_socketserver.py	Tue Jan 08 00:52:40 2013 +0100
+++ b/Lib/test/test_socketserver.py	Wed Jan 09 00:59:44 2013 +0100
@@ -111,6 +111,10 @@ class SocketServerTest(unittest.TestCase
 
         if verbose: print("creating server")
         server = MyServer(addr, MyHandler)
+        if MyServer.close_on_exec:
+            import fcntl
+            flags = fcntl.fcntl(server.socket.fileno(), fcntl.F_GETFD)
+            self.assertTrue(flags & fcntl.FD_CLOEXEC)
         self.assertEqual(server.server_address, server.socket.getsockname())
         return server
 
diff -r 0afa7b323abb Lib/xmlrpc/server.py
--- a/Lib/xmlrpc/server.py	Tue Jan 08 00:52:40 2013 +0100
+++ b/Lib/xmlrpc/server.py	Wed Jan 09 00:59:44 2013 +0100
@@ -114,10 +114,6 @@ import re
 import pydoc
 import inspect
 import traceback
-try:
-    import fcntl
-except ImportError:
-    fcntl = None
 
 def resolve_dotted_attribute(obj, attr, allow_dotted_names=True):
     """resolve_dotted_attribute(a, 'b.c.d') => a.b.c.d
@@ -584,13 +580,6 @@ class SimpleXMLRPCServer(socketserver.TC
         SimpleXMLRPCDispatcher.__init__(self, allow_none, encoding, use_builtin_types)
         socketserver.TCPServer.__init__(self, addr, requestHandler, bind_and_activate)
 
-        # [Bug #1222790] If possible, set close-on-exec flag; if a
-        # method spawns a subprocess, the subprocess shouldn't have
-        # the listening socket open.
-        if fcntl is not None and hasattr(fcntl, 'FD_CLOEXEC'):
-            flags = fcntl.fcntl(self.fileno(), fcntl.F_GETFD)
-            flags |= fcntl.FD_CLOEXEC
-            fcntl.fcntl(self.fileno(), fcntl.F_SETFD, flags)
 
 class MultiPathXMLRPCServer(SimpleXMLRPCServer):
     """Multipath XML-RPC Server