diff -r 2e889344436e Lib/distutils/command/bdist_rpm.py
--- a/Lib/distutils/command/bdist_rpm.py	Sat Nov 28 22:38:24 2015 +0000
+++ b/Lib/distutils/command/bdist_rpm.py	Sun Nov 29 13:41:39 2015 +0100
@@ -338,30 +338,22 @@
         nvr_string = "%{name}-%{version}-%{release}"
         src_rpm = nvr_string + ".src.rpm"
         non_src_rpm = "%{arch}/" + nvr_string + ".%{arch}.rpm"
-        q_cmd = r"rpm -q --qf '%s %s\n' --specfile '%s'" % (
-            src_rpm, non_src_rpm, spec_path)
+        q_cmd = ("rpm", "-q", "--qf", r"%s %s\n" % (src_rpm, non_src_rpm),
+                "--specfile", spec_path)
 
-        out = os.popen(q_cmd)
         try:
-            binary_rpms = []
-            source_rpm = None
-            while True:
-                line = out.readline()
-                if not line:
-                    break
-                l = line.strip().split()
-                assert(len(l) == 2)
-                binary_rpms.append(l[1])
-                # The source rpm is named after the first entry in the spec file
-                if source_rpm is None:
-                    source_rpm = l[0]
+            proc = subprocess.Popen(q_cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+        except OSError:
+            raise DistutilsExecError("Failed to execute: %r" % (q_cmd,)) from None
 
-            status = out.close()
-            if status:
-                raise DistutilsExecError("Failed to execute: %s" % repr(q_cmd))
-
-        finally:
-            out.close()
+        out, _ = proc.communicate()
+        lines = [line.split() for line in out]
+        assert(all(len(l) == 2 for l in lines))
+        binary_rpms = [i for _, i in lines]
+        source_rpm = lines[0][0]
+        proc.stdout.close()
+        if proc.returncode:
+            raise DistutilsExecError("Failed to execute: %r" % (q_cmd,))
 
         self.spawn(rpm_cmd)