diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index aa483a1..f61dac1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ as [Streams](https://github.com/reactphp/stream).
   * [Stream Properties](#stream-properties)
   * [Command](#command)
   * [Termination](#termination)
+  * [Custom pipes](#custom-pipes)
   * [Sigchild Compatibility](#sigchild-compatibility)
   * [Windows Compatibility](#windows-compatibility)
 * [Install](#install)
@@ -55,14 +56,21 @@ Once a process is started, its I/O streams will be constructed as instances of
 Before `start()` is called, these properties are not set. Once a process terminates, 
 the streams will become closed but not unset.
 
+Following common Unix conventions, this library will start each child process
+with the three pipes matching the standard I/O streams as given below by default.
+You can use the named references for common use cases or access these as an
+array with all three pipes.
+
 * `$stdin`  or `$pipes[0]` is a `WritableStreamInterface`
 * `$stdout` or `$pipes[1]` is a `ReadableStreamInterface`
 * `$stderr` or `$pipes[2]` is a `ReadableStreamInterface`
 
-Following common Unix conventions, this library will always start each child
-process with the three pipes matching the standard I/O streams as given above.
-You can use the named references for common use cases or access these as an
-array with all three pipes.
+Note that this default configuration may be overridden by explicitly passing
+[custom pipes](#custom-pipes), in which case they may not be set or be assigned
+different values. The `$pipes` array will always contain references to all pipes
+as configured and the standard I/O references will always be set to reference
+the pipes matching the above conventions. See [custom pipes](#custom-pipes) for
+more details.
 
 Because each of these implement the underlying
 [`ReadableStreamInterface`](https://github.com/reactphp/stream#readablestreaminterface) or 
@@ -70,6 +78,9 @@ Because each of these implement the underlying
 you can use any of their events and methods as usual:
 
 ```php
+$process = new Process($command);
+$process->start($loop);
+
 $process->stdout->on('data', function ($chunk) {
     echo $chunk;
 });
@@ -298,6 +309,54 @@ properties actually allow some fine grained control over process termination,
 such as first trying a soft-close and then applying a force-close after a
 timeout.
 
+### Custom pipes
+
+Following common Unix conventions, this library will start each child process
+with the three pipes matching the standard I/O streams by default. For more
+advanced use cases it may be useful to pass in custom pipes, such as explicitly
+passing additional file descriptors (FDs) or overriding default process pipes.
+
+Note that passing custom pipes is considered advanced usage and requires a
+more in-depth understanding of Unix file descriptors and how they are inherited
+to child processes and shared in multi-processing applications.
+
+If you do not want to use the default standard I/O pipes, you can explicitly
+pass an array containing the file descriptor specification to the constructor
+like this:
+
+```php
+$fds = array(
+    // standard I/O pipes for stdin/stdout/stderr
+    0 => array('pipe', 'r'),
+    1 => array('pipe', 'w'),
+    2 => array('pipe', 'w'),
+
+    // example FDs for files or open resources
+    4 => array('file', '/dev/null', 'r'),
+    6 => fopen('log.txt','a'),
+    8 => STDERR,
+
+    // example FDs for sockets
+    10 => fsockopen('localhost', 8080),
+    12 => stream_socket_server('tcp://0.0.0.0:4711')
+);
+
+$process = new Process($cmd, null, null, $fds);
+$process->start($loop);
+```
+
+Unless your use case has special requirements that demand otherwise, you're
+highly recommended to (at least) pass in the standard I/O pipes as given above.
+The file descriptor specification accepts arguments in the exact same format
+as the underlying [`proc_open()`](http://php.net/proc_open) function.
+
+Once the process is started, the `$pipes` array will always contain references to
+all pipes as configured and the standard I/O references will always be set to
+reference the pipes matching common Unix conventions. This library supports any
+number of pipes and additional file descriptors, but many common applications
+being run as a child process will expect that the parent process properly
+assigns these file descriptors.
+
 ### Sigchild Compatibility
 
 Internally, this project uses a work-around to improve compatibility when PHP
diff --git a/examples/21-fds.php b/examples/21-fds.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c950c05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/21-fds.php
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+<?php
+
+use React\EventLoop\Factory;
+use React\ChildProcess\Process;
+
+require __DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php';
+
+$loop = Factory::create();
+
+$process = new Process('exec 0>&- 2>&-;exec ls -la /proc/self/fd', null, null, array(
+    1 => array('pipe', 'w')
+));
+$process->start($loop);
+
+$process->stdout->on('data', function ($chunk) {
+    echo $chunk;
+});
+
+$process->on('exit', function ($code) {
+    echo 'EXIT with code ' . $code . PHP_EOL;
+});
+
+$loop->run();
diff --git a/src/Process.php b/src/Process.php
index bb47741..327f4bd 100644
--- a/src/Process.php
+++ b/src/Process.php
@@ -20,22 +20,25 @@
 class Process extends EventEmitter
 {
     /**
-     * @var ?WritableStreamInterface
+     * @var WritableStreamInterface|null|ReadableStreamInterface
      */
     public $stdin;
 
     /**
-     * @var ?ReadableStreamInterface
+     * @var ReadableStreamInterface|null|WritableStreamInterface
      */
     public $stdout;
 
     /**
-     * @var ?ReadableStreamInterface
+     * @var ReadableStreamInterface|null|WritableStreamInterface
      */
     public $stderr;
 
     /**
      * Array with all process pipes (once started)
+     *
+     * Unless explicitly configured otherwise during construction, the following
+     * standard I/O pipes will be assigned by default:
      * - 0: STDIN (`WritableStreamInterface`)
      * - 1: STDOUT (`ReadableStreamInterface`)
      * - 2: STDERR (`ReadableStreamInterface`)
@@ -47,6 +50,8 @@ class Process extends EventEmitter
     private $cmd;
     private $cwd;
     private $env;
+    private $fds;
+
     private $enhanceSigchildCompatibility;
     private $sigchildPipe;
 
@@ -65,9 +70,10 @@ class Process extends EventEmitter
     * @param string $cmd      Command line to run
     * @param null|string $cwd Current working directory or null to inherit
     * @param null|array  $env Environment variables or null to inherit
+    * @param null|array  $fds File descriptors to allocate for this process (or null = default STDIO streams)
     * @throws \LogicException On windows or when proc_open() is not installed
     */
-    public function __construct($cmd, $cwd = null, array $env = null)
+    public function __construct($cmd, $cwd = null, array $env = null, array $fds = null)
     {
         if (substr(strtolower(PHP_OS), 0, 3) === 'win') {
             throw new \LogicException('Windows isn\'t supported due to the blocking nature of STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR pipes.');
@@ -87,18 +93,27 @@ public function __construct($cmd, $cwd = null, array $env = null)
             }
         }
 
+        if ($fds === null) {
+            $fds = array(
+                array('pipe', 'r'), // stdin
+                array('pipe', 'w'), // stdout
+                array('pipe', 'w'), // stderr
+            );
+        }
+
+        $this->fds = $fds;
         $this->enhanceSigchildCompatibility = self::isSigchildEnabled();
     }
 
     /**
      * Start the process.
      *
-     * After the process is started, the standard IO streams will be constructed
-     * and available via public properties. STDIN will be paused upon creation.
+     * After the process is started, the standard I/O streams will be constructed
+     * and available via public properties.
      *
      * @param LoopInterface $loop        Loop interface for stream construction
      * @param float         $interval    Interval to periodically monitor process state (seconds)
-     * @throws RuntimeException If the process is already running or fails to start
+     * @throws \RuntimeException If the process is already running or fails to start
      */
     public function start(LoopInterface $loop, $interval = 0.1)
     {
@@ -107,17 +122,22 @@ public function start(LoopInterface $loop, $interval = 0.1)
         }
 
         $cmd = $this->cmd;
-        $fdSpec = array(
-            array('pipe', 'r'), // stdin
-            array('pipe', 'w'), // stdout
-            array('pipe', 'w'), // stderr
-        );
-
+        $fdSpec = $this->fds;
         $sigchild = null;
+
         // Read exit code through fourth pipe to work around --enable-sigchild
         if ($this->enhanceSigchildCompatibility) {
             $fdSpec[] = array('pipe', 'w');
-            $sigchild = 3;
+            \end($fdSpec);
+            $sigchild = \key($fdSpec);
+
+            // make sure this is fourth or higher (do not mess with STDIO)
+            if ($sigchild < 3) {
+                $fdSpec[3] = $fdSpec[$sigchild];
+                unset($fdSpec[$sigchild]);
+                $sigchild = 3;
+            }
+
             $cmd = sprintf('(%s) ' . $sigchild . '>/dev/null; code=$?; echo $code >&' . $sigchild . '; exit $code', $cmd);
         }
 
@@ -127,13 +147,13 @@ public function start(LoopInterface $loop, $interval = 0.1)
             throw new \RuntimeException('Unable to launch a new process.');
         }
 
-        $closeCount = 0;
-
+        // count open process pipes and await close event for each to drain buffers before detecting exit
         $that = $this;
+        $closeCount = 0;
         $streamCloseHandler = function () use (&$closeCount, $loop, $interval, $that) {
-            $closeCount++;
+            $closeCount--;
 
-            if ($closeCount < 2) {
+            if ($closeCount > 0) {
                 return;
             }
 
@@ -160,18 +180,25 @@ public function start(LoopInterface $loop, $interval = 0.1)
         }
 
         foreach ($pipes as $n => $fd) {
-            if ($n === 0) {
+            $meta = \stream_get_meta_data($fd);
+            if (\strpos($meta['mode'], 'w') !== false) {
                 $stream = new WritableResourceStream($fd, $loop);
             } else {
                 $stream = new ReadableResourceStream($fd, $loop);
                 $stream->on('close', $streamCloseHandler);
+                $closeCount++;
             }
             $this->pipes[$n] = $stream;
         }
 
-        $this->stdin  = $this->pipes[0];
-        $this->stdout = $this->pipes[1];
-        $this->stderr = $this->pipes[2];
+        $this->stdin  = isset($this->pipes[0]) ? $this->pipes[0] : null;
+        $this->stdout = isset($this->pipes[1]) ? $this->pipes[1] : null;
+        $this->stderr = isset($this->pipes[2]) ? $this->pipes[2] : null;
+
+        // immediately start checking for process exit when started without any I/O pipes
+        if (!$closeCount) {
+            $streamCloseHandler();
+        }
     }
 
     /**
@@ -186,9 +213,9 @@ public function close()
             return;
         }
 
-        $this->stdin->close();
-        $this->stdout->close();
-        $this->stderr->close();
+        foreach ($this->pipes as $pipe) {
+            $pipe->close();
+        }
 
         if ($this->enhanceSigchildCompatibility) {
             $this->pollExitCodePipe();
diff --git a/tests/AbstractProcessTest.php b/tests/AbstractProcessTest.php
index ce21caa..fd5a9c2 100644
--- a/tests/AbstractProcessTest.php
+++ b/tests/AbstractProcessTest.php
@@ -42,6 +42,33 @@ public function testStartWillAssignPipes()
         $this->assertSame($process->stderr, $process->pipes[2]);
     }
 
+    public function testStartWithoutAnyPipesWillNotAssignPipes()
+    {
+        $process = new Process('exit 0', null, null, array());
+        $process->start($this->createLoop());
+
+        $this->assertNull($process->stdin);
+        $this->assertNull($process->stdout);
+        $this->assertNull($process->stderr);
+        $this->assertEquals(array(), $process->pipes);
+    }
+
+    public function testStartWithCustomPipesWillAssignPipes()
+    {
+        $process = new Process('exit 0', null, null, array(
+            0 => array('pipe', 'w'),
+            3 => array('pipe', 'r')
+        ));
+        $process->start($this->createLoop());
+
+        $this->assertInstanceOf('React\Stream\ReadableStreamInterface', $process->stdin);
+        $this->assertNull($process->stdout);
+        $this->assertNull($process->stderr);
+        $this->assertCount(2, $process->pipes);
+        $this->assertSame($process->stdin, $process->pipes[0]);
+        $this->assertInstanceOf('React\Stream\WritableStreamInterface', $process->pipes[3]);
+    }
+
     public function testIsRunning()
     {
         $process = new Process('sleep 1');
@@ -333,6 +360,21 @@ public function testDetectsClosingProcessEvenWhenAllStdioPipesHaveBeenClosed()
         $time = microtime(true) - $time;
 
         $this->assertLessThan(0.1, $time);
+        $this->assertSame(0, $process->getExitCode());
+    }
+
+    public function testDetectsClosingProcessEvenWhenStartedWithoutPipes()
+    {
+        $loop = $this->createLoop();
+        $process = new Process('exit 0', null, null, array());
+        $process->start($loop, 0.001);
+
+        $time = microtime(true);
+        $loop->run();
+        $time = microtime(true) - $time;
+
+        $this->assertLessThan(0.1, $time);
+        $this->assertSame(0, $process->getExitCode());
     }
 
     public function testStartInvalidProcess()