diff --git a/lib/rubygems/user_interaction.rb b/lib/rubygems/user_interaction.rb
index f5e460f994..f7788cedf2 100644
--- a/lib/rubygems/user_interaction.rb
+++ b/lib/rubygems/user_interaction.rb
@@ -378,9 +378,13 @@ class Gem::StreamUI
   # handlers that might have been defined.
 
   def terminate_interaction(status = 0)
+    close
     raise Gem::SystemExitException, status
   end
 
+  def close
+  end
+
   ##
   # Return a progress reporter object chosen from the current verbosity.
 
@@ -683,6 +687,12 @@ class Gem::SilentUI < Gem::StreamUI
     super reader, writer, writer, false
   end
 
+  def close
+    super
+    @ins.close
+    @outs.close
+  end
+
   def download_reporter(*args) # :nodoc:
     SilentDownloadReporter.new(@outs, *args)
   end
diff --git a/test/rubygems/test_gem_silent_ui.rb b/test/rubygems/test_gem_silent_ui.rb
index 1e25c007c2..01ff79d828 100644
--- a/test/rubygems/test_gem_silent_ui.rb
+++ b/test/rubygems/test_gem_silent_ui.rb
@@ -9,6 +9,11 @@ class TestGemSilentUI < Gem::TestCase
     @sui = Gem::SilentUI.new
   end
 
+  def teardown
+    @sui.close
+    super
+  end
+
   def test_ask
     value = nil
     out, err = capture_io do