diff --git a/nowrap b/nowrap
index cfd5243..f351775 100755
--- a/nowrap
+++ b/nowrap
@@ -77,19 +77,10 @@ use open ':locale';
 my $TABSTOP = 8;
 my $ESCAPE_SEQUENCE_PATTERN = qr/(\e\[\d*(;\d+)*m)/;
 
-my $columns = `tput cols`;
-chomp($columns);
 my $isWrap = 0;
 my $indentString = '';
 my $indentLength = 0;
-
-if ($columns and $ENV{TERM} eq "cygwin") {
-    # use one less than the number of columns when running on Windows under
-    # cygwin.  Thanks to Ingo Karkat: https://github.com/goodell/nowrap/issues/2
-    --$columns;
-}
-
-$columns = 80 unless $columns;
+my $columns;
 
 GetOptions(
     "help" => \&print_usage_and_exit,
@@ -108,6 +99,19 @@ GetOptions(
     },
 ) or die "unable to parse options, stopped";
 
+unless (defined $columns) {
+  $columns = `tput cols`;
+  chomp($columns);
+
+  if ($columns and $ENV{TERM} eq "cygwin") {
+      # use one less than the number of columns when running on Windows under
+      # cygwin.  Thanks to Ingo Karkat: https://github.com/goodell/nowrap/issues/2
+      --$columns;
+  }
+
+  $columns = 80 unless $columns;
+}
+
 if ($columns < $indentLength + 1) {
     die "--columns too small to accommodate --indent-string and any characters, stopped";
 }
diff --git a/script/nowrap.pl b/script/nowrap.pl
index 02aae5a..a69cfd3 100755
--- a/script/nowrap.pl
+++ b/script/nowrap.pl
@@ -31,19 +31,10 @@
 my $TABSTOP = 8;
 my $ESCAPE_SEQUENCE_PATTERN = qr/(\e\[\d*(;\d+)*m)/;
 
-my $columns = `tput cols`;
-chomp($columns);
 my $isWrap = 0;
 my $indentString = '';
 my $indentLength = 0;
-
-if ($columns and $ENV{TERM} eq "cygwin") {
-    # use one less than the number of columns when running on Windows under
-    # cygwin.  Thanks to Ingo Karkat: https://github.com/goodell/nowrap/issues/2
-    --$columns;
-}
-
-$columns = 80 unless $columns;
+my $columns;
 
 GetOptions(
     "help" => \&print_usage_and_exit,
@@ -62,6 +53,19 @@
     },
 ) or die "unable to parse options, stopped";
 
+unless (defined $columns) {
+  $columns = `tput cols`;
+  chomp($columns);
+
+  if ($columns and $ENV{TERM} eq "cygwin") {
+      # use one less than the number of columns when running on Windows under
+      # cygwin.  Thanks to Ingo Karkat: https://github.com/goodell/nowrap/issues/2
+      --$columns;
+  }
+
+  $columns = 80 unless $columns;
+}
+
 if ($columns < $indentLength + 1) {
     die "--columns too small to accommodate --indent-string and any characters, stopped";
 }
diff --git a/tests/test.sh b/tests/test.sh
index ea8eba9..a8cc1a4 100755
--- a/tests/test.sh
+++ b/tests/test.sh
@@ -114,3 +114,27 @@ else
     exit 1
 fi
 
+# make sure nowrap doesn't invoke 'tput' if '-c' is passed
+(
+    # TERM is the one that matters (breaks 'tput cols'), but COLUMNS and LINES
+    # are to avoid any clever fallback that might get added to nowrap in the
+    # future
+    unset TERM
+    unset COLUMMS
+    unset LINES
+
+    # send stderr to /dev/null because nohup always warns about redirecting its output
+    nohup ${NOWRAP} --columns=72 tc0.in 2>/dev/null
+    status=$?
+    if [[ $status -ne 0 ]] ; then
+        echo "ERROR: non-zero exit code ($status)"
+    fi
+
+    if $DIFF tc0.expected nohup.out ; then
+        :
+    else
+        echo "ERROR: nohup run failed (expected != output)"
+    fi
+
+    rm -f nohup.out
+)