diff --git a/unix/unix.h b/unix/unix.h
index adaebea6..3831f9b6 100644
--- a/unix/unix.h
+++ b/unix/unix.h
@@ -101,18 +101,6 @@ unsigned long getticks(void);
 #define WCHAR wchar_t
 #define BYTE unsigned char
 
-/*
- * Unix-specific global flag
- *
- * FLAG_STDERR_TTY indicates that standard error might be a terminal and
- * might get its configuration munged, so anything trying to output plain
- * text (i.e. with newlines in it) will need to put it back into cooked
- * mode first.  Applications setting this flag should also call
- * stderr_tty_init() before messing with any terminal modes, and can call
- * premsg() before outputting text to stderr and postmsg() afterwards.
- */
-#define FLAG_STDERR_TTY 0x1000
-
 #define PLATFORM_CLIPBOARDS(X)                            \
     X(CLIP_PRIMARY, "X11 primary selection")              \
     X(CLIP_CLIPBOARD, "XDG clipboard")                    \
@@ -305,7 +293,7 @@ extern char *pty_osx_envrestore_prefix;
 
 /* Things provided by uxcons.c */
 struct termios;
-void stderr_tty_init(void);
+void stderr_tty_init(void); /* call at startup if stderr might be a tty */
 void premsg(struct termios *);
 void postmsg(struct termios *);
 
diff --git a/unix/uxcons.c b/unix/uxcons.c
index e3a57493..27bd5050 100644
--- a/unix/uxcons.c
+++ b/unix/uxcons.c
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ static bool stderr_is_a_tty;
 void stderr_tty_init()
 {
     /* Ensure that if stderr is a tty, we can get it back to a sane state. */
-    if ((flags & FLAG_STDERR_TTY) && isatty(STDERR_FILENO)) {
+    if (isatty(STDERR_FILENO)) {
         stderr_is_a_tty = true;
         tcgetattr(STDERR_FILENO, &orig_termios_stderr);
     }
diff --git a/unix/uxplink.c b/unix/uxplink.c
index c42037cc..41875e43 100644
--- a/unix/uxplink.c
+++ b/unix/uxplink.c
@@ -603,7 +603,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     stderr_bs = BinarySink_UPCAST(&stderr_bcs);
     outgoingeof = EOF_NO;
 
-    flags = FLAG_STDERR_TTY;
+    flags = 0;
     cmdline_tooltype |=
         (TOOLTYPE_HOST_ARG |
          TOOLTYPE_HOST_ARG_CAN_BE_SESSION |