diff --git a/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/imsg.c b/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/imsg.c
index 8ae9f227..737175b8 100644
--- a/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/imsg.c
+++ b/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/imsg.c
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/*	$OpenBSD: imsg.c,v 1.17 2009/06/08 08:30:06 dlg Exp $	*/
+/*	$OpenBSD: imsg.c,v 1.18 2009/08/08 18:33:40 nicm Exp $	*/
 
 /*
  * Copyright (c) 2003, 2004 Henning Brauer <henning@openbsd.org>
@@ -263,6 +263,9 @@ imsg_flush(struct imsgbuf *ibuf)
 void
 imsg_clear(struct imsgbuf *ibuf)
 {
-	while (ibuf->w.queued)
-		msgbuf_clear(&ibuf->w);
+	int	fd;
+
+	msgbuf_clear(&ibuf->w);
+	while ((fd = imsg_get_fd(ibuf)) != -1)
+		close(fd);
 }