diff -r 6b08429a3932 Lib/distutils/command/bdist_rpm.py
--- a/Lib/distutils/command/bdist_rpm.py	Mon Nov 30 03:18:29 2015 +0000
+++ b/Lib/distutils/command/bdist_rpm.py	Mon Nov 30 11:56:05 2015 +0100
@@ -338,30 +338,19 @@
         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]
+            out = subprocess.check_output(q_cmd)
+        except (OSError, subprocess.CalledProcessError):
+            raise DistutilsExecError("Failed to execute: %r" % (q_cmd,))
 
-            status = out.close()
-            if status:
-                raise DistutilsExecError("Failed to execute: %s" % repr(q_cmd))
-
-        finally:
-            out.close()
+        lines = [line.split() for line in out.splitlines()]
+        assert(all(len(l) == 2 for l in lines))
+        binary_rpms = [i for _, i in lines]
+        # The source rpm is named after the first entry in the spec file
+        source_rpm = lines[0][0] if lines else None
 
         self.spawn(rpm_cmd)