diff --git a/ptyprocess/ptyprocess.py b/ptyprocess/ptyprocess.py
index 29b4e43..5bfc634 100644
--- a/ptyprocess/ptyprocess.py
+++ b/ptyprocess/ptyprocess.py
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ def _byte(i):
 else:
     def _byte(i):
         return chr(i)
-    
+
     class FileNotFoundError(OSError): pass
     class TimeoutError(OSError): pass
 
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ class TimeoutError(OSError): pass
 
 def _make_eof_intr():
     """Set constants _EOF and _INTR.
-    
+
     This avoids doing potentially costly operations on module load.
     """
     global _EOF, _INTR
@@ -84,13 +84,13 @@ def _make_eof_intr():
         except ImportError:
             #                         ^C, ^D
             (intr, eof) = (3, 4)
-    
+
     _INTR = _byte(intr)
     _EOF = _byte(eof)
 
 # setecho and setwinsize are pulled out here because on some platforms, we need
 # to do this from the child before we exec()
-    
+
 def _setecho(fd, state):
     errmsg = 'setecho() may not be called on this platform (it may still be possible to enable/disable echo when spawning the child process)'
 
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ def _setwinsize(fd, rows, cols):
 
 class PtyProcess(object):
     '''This class represents a process running in a pseudoterminal.
-    
+
     The main constructor is the :meth:`spawn` classmethod.
     '''
     string_type = bytes
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ def write_to_stdout(b):
         write_to_stdout = sys.stdout.write
 
     encoding = None
-    
+
     argv = None
     env = None
     launch_dir = None
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ def __init__(self, pid, fd):
     @classmethod
     def spawn(
             cls, argv, cwd=None, env=None, echo=True, preexec_fn=None,
-            dimensions=(24, 80)):
+            dimensions=(24, 80), pass_fds=()):
         '''Start the given command in a child process in a pseudo terminal.
 
         This does all the fork/exec type of stuff for a pty, and returns an
@@ -190,6 +190,10 @@ def spawn(
 
         Dimensions of the psuedoterminal used for the subprocess can be
         specified as a tuple (rows, cols), or the default (24, 80) will be used.
+
+        By default, all file descriptors except 0, 1 and 2 are closed. This
+        behavior can be overridden with pass_fds, a list of file descriptors to
+        keep open between the parent and the child.
         '''
         # Note that it is difficult for this method to fail.
         # You cannot detect if the child process cannot start.
@@ -255,12 +259,14 @@ def spawn(
 
             # Do not allow child to inherit open file descriptors from parent,
             # with the exception of the exec_err_pipe_write of the pipe
+            # and pass_fds.
             # Impose ceiling on max_fd: AIX bugfix for users with unlimited
             # nofiles where resource.RLIMIT_NOFILE is 2^63-1 and os.closerange()
             # occasionally raises out of range error
             max_fd = min(1048576, resource.getrlimit(resource.RLIMIT_NOFILE)[0])
-            os.closerange(3, exec_err_pipe_write)
-            os.closerange(exec_err_pipe_write+1, max_fd)
+            spass_fds = sorted(pass_fds + (exec_err_pipe_write,))
+            for pair in zip([2] + spass_fds, spass_fds + [max_fd]):
+                os.closerange(pair[0]+1, pair[1])
 
             if cwd is not None:
                 os.chdir(cwd)
@@ -295,7 +301,7 @@ def spawn(
 
         # Parent
         inst = cls(pid, fd)
-        
+
         # Set some informational attributes
         inst.argv = argv
         if env is not None:
@@ -345,9 +351,9 @@ def __repr__(self):
                 args.append("env=%r" % self.env)
             if self.launch_dir is not None:
                 args.append("cwd=%r" % self.launch_dir)
-            
+
             return "{}.spawn({})".format(clsname, ", ".join(args))
-        
+
         else:
             return "{}(pid={}, fd={})".format(clsname, self.pid, self.fd)
 
@@ -505,7 +511,7 @@ def read(self, size=1024):
 
         Can block if there is nothing to read. Raises :exc:`EOFError` if the
         terminal was closed.
-        
+
         Unlike Pexpect's ``read_nonblocking`` method, this doesn't try to deal
         with the vagaries of EOF on platforms that do strange things, like IRIX
         or older Solaris systems. It handles the errno=EIO pattern used on
@@ -556,7 +562,7 @@ def _writeb(self, b, flush=True):
 
     def write(self, s, flush=True):
         """Write bytes to the pseudoterminal.
-        
+
         Returns the number of bytes written.
         """
         return self._writeb(s, flush=flush)
diff --git a/tests/test_spawn.py b/tests/test_spawn.py
index 696e126..d372756 100755
--- a/tests/test_spawn.py
+++ b/tests/test_spawn.py
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
+import fcntl
 import os
 import time
 import select
+import tempfile
 import unittest
 from ptyprocess.ptyprocess import which
 from ptyprocess import PtyProcess, PtyProcessUnicode
@@ -111,3 +113,24 @@ def test_interactive_repl_unicode_noecho(self):
     @unittest.skipIf(which('bc') is None, "bc(1) not found on this server.")
     def test_interactive_repl_unicode_echo(self):
         self._interactive_repl_unicode(echo=True)
+
+    def test_pass_fds(self):
+        with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as temp_file:
+            temp_file_fd = temp_file.fileno()
+            temp_file_name = temp_file.name
+
+            # Temporary files are CLOEXEC by default
+            fcntl.fcntl(temp_file_fd,
+                        fcntl.F_SETFD,
+                        fcntl.fcntl(temp_file_fd, fcntl.F_GETFD) &
+                        ~fcntl.FD_CLOEXEC)
+
+            p = PtyProcess.spawn(['bash',
+                                  '-c',
+                                  'printf hello >&{}'.format(temp_file_fd)],
+                                 echo=True,
+                                 pass_fds=(temp_file_fd,))
+            p.wait()
+
+            with open(temp_file_name, 'r') as temp_file_r:
+                assert temp_file_r.read() == 'hello'