diff --git a/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/imsg.c b/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/imsg.c
index a70cb77d..ff2f21ba 100644
--- a/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/imsg.c
+++ b/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/imsg.c
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/*	$OpenBSD: imsg.c,v 1.15 2009/06/07 00:40:46 eric Exp $	*/
+/*	$OpenBSD: imsg.c,v 1.16 2009/06/07 05:56:25 eric Exp $	*/
 
 /*
  * Copyright (c) 2003, 2004 Henning Brauer <henning@openbsd.org>
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@
 
 #include "imsg.h"
 
+int	 imsg_get_fd(struct imsgbuf *);
+
 void
 imsg_init(struct imsgbuf *ibuf, int fd)
 {
@@ -113,9 +115,14 @@ imsg_get(struct imsgbuf *ibuf, struct imsg *imsg)
 	imsg->hdr.pid = ntohl(imsg->hdr.pid);
 	datalen = imsg->hdr.len - IMSG_HEADER_SIZE;
 	ibuf->r.rptr = ibuf->r.buf + IMSG_HEADER_SIZE;
-	if ((imsg->data = malloc(datalen)) == NULL) {
+	if ((imsg->data = malloc(datalen)) == NULL)
 		return (-1);
-	}
+
+	if (imsg->hdr.flags & IMSGF_HASFD)
+		imsg->fd = imsg_get_fd(ibuf);
+	else
+		imsg->fd = -1;
+
 	memcpy(imsg->data, ibuf->r.rptr, datalen);
 
 	if (imsg->hdr.len < av) {
@@ -216,6 +223,11 @@ imsg_close(struct imsgbuf *ibuf, struct buf *msg)
 	struct imsg_hdr	*hdr;
 
 	hdr = (struct imsg_hdr *)msg->buf;
+
+	hdr->flags &= ~IMSGF_HASFD;
+	if (msg->fd != -1)
+		hdr->flags |= IMSGF_HASFD;
+
 	hdr->type = htonl(hdr->type);
 	hdr->len = htons(msg->wpos);
 	hdr->flags = htons(hdr->flags);
diff --git a/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/imsg.h b/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/imsg.h
index f70ddb04..427e3e14 100644
--- a/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/imsg.h
+++ b/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/imsg.h
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/*	$OpenBSD: imsg.h,v 1.2 2009/06/06 22:11:25 eric Exp $	*/
+/*	$OpenBSD: imsg.h,v 1.3 2009/06/07 05:56:25 eric Exp $	*/
 
 /*
  * Copyright (c) 2006, 2007 Pierre-Yves Ritschard <pyr@openbsd.org>
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ struct imsgbuf {
 	pid_t			 pid;
 };
 
+#define IMSGF_HASFD	1
+
 struct imsg_hdr {
 	u_int32_t	 type;
 	u_int16_t	 len;
@@ -69,6 +71,7 @@ struct imsg_hdr {
 
 struct imsg {
 	struct imsg_hdr	 hdr;
+	int		 fd;
 	void		*data;
 };
 
@@ -101,6 +104,5 @@ struct buf *imsg_create(struct imsgbuf *, u_int32_t, u_int32_t, pid_t,
 int	 imsg_add(struct buf *, void *, u_int16_t);
 void	 imsg_close(struct imsgbuf *, struct buf *);
 void	 imsg_free(struct imsg *);
-int	 imsg_get_fd(struct imsgbuf *);
 int	 imsg_flush(struct imsgbuf *);
 void	 imsg_clear(struct imsgbuf *);