diff --git a/src/logging/WriterFrontend.cc b/src/logging/WriterFrontend.cc
index 577003926b..b816327e9c 100644
--- a/src/logging/WriterFrontend.cc
+++ b/src/logging/WriterFrontend.cc
@@ -141,9 +141,6 @@ void WriterFrontend::Stop()
 	{
 	FlushWriteBuffer();
 	SetDisable();
-
-	if ( backend )
-		backend->Stop();
 	}
 
 void WriterFrontend::Init(const WriterBackend::WriterInfo& arg_info, int arg_num_fields, const Field* const * arg_fields)
diff --git a/src/logging/WriterFrontend.h b/src/logging/WriterFrontend.h
index 6581fb1c1b..e8f3d06d6c 100644
--- a/src/logging/WriterFrontend.h
+++ b/src/logging/WriterFrontend.h
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ public:
 
 	/**
 	 * Stops all output to this writer. Calling this methods disables all
-	 * message forwarding to the backend and stops the backend thread.
+	 * message forwarding to the backend.
 	 *
 	 * This method must only be called from the main thread.
 	 */
diff --git a/src/threading/MsgThread.cc b/src/threading/MsgThread.cc
index 45fbf6afa5..f101d0ca3c 100644
--- a/src/threading/MsgThread.cc
+++ b/src/threading/MsgThread.cc
@@ -152,12 +152,13 @@ MsgThread::MsgThread() : BasicThread()
 	{
 	cnt_sent_in = cnt_sent_out = 0;
 	finished = false;
+	stopped = false;
 	thread_mgr->AddMsgThread(this);
 	}
 
 void MsgThread::OnStop()
 	{
-	if ( finished )
+	if ( stopped )
 		return;
 
 	// Signal thread to terminate and wait until it has acknowledged.
@@ -303,13 +304,8 @@ BasicInputMessage* MsgThread::RetrieveIn()
 
 void MsgThread::Run()
 	{
-	while ( true )
+	while ( ! finished )
 		{
-		// When requested to terminate, we only do so when
-		// all input has been processed.
-		if ( Terminating() && ! queue_in.Ready() )
-			break;
-
 		BasicInputMessage* msg = RetrieveIn();
 
 		bool result = msg->Process();
@@ -318,12 +314,13 @@ void MsgThread::Run()
 			{
 			string s = msg->Name() + " failed, terminating thread (MsgThread)";
 			Error(s.c_str());
-			Stop();
 			break;
 			}
 
 		delete msg;
 		}
+
+    Finished();
 	}
 
 void MsgThread::GetStats(Stats* stats)
diff --git a/src/threading/MsgThread.h b/src/threading/MsgThread.h
index 67ab9517c5..d929c1f806 100644
--- a/src/threading/MsgThread.h
+++ b/src/threading/MsgThread.h
@@ -293,6 +293,7 @@ private:
 	uint64_t cnt_sent_out;	// Counts message sent by child.
 
 	bool finished;	// Set to true by Finished message.
+	bool stopped;   // Set to true by OnStop().
 };
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/util.cc b/src/util.cc
index 3cfa5fca1c..b7a4683597 100644
--- a/src/util.cc
+++ b/src/util.cc
@@ -1290,6 +1290,28 @@ uint64 calculate_unique_id(size_t pool)
 	return HashKey::HashBytes(&(uid_pool[pool].key), sizeof(uid_pool[pool].key));
 	}
 
+bool safe_write(int fd, const char* data, int len)
+	{
+    return true;
+	while ( len > 0 )
+		{
+		int n = write(fd, data, len);
+
+		if ( n < 0 )
+			{
+			if ( errno == EINTR )
+				continue;
+
+			return false;
+			}
+
+		data += n;
+		len -= n;
+		}
+
+	return true;
+	}
+
 void out_of_memory(const char* where)
 	{
 	reporter->FatalError("out of memory in %s.\n", where);
diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
index e4c995f45f..075c2af7c2 100644
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -289,6 +289,11 @@ inline size_t pad_size(size_t size)
 
 #define padded_sizeof(x) (pad_size(sizeof(x)))
 
+// Like write() but handles interrupted system calls by restarting. Returns
+// true if the write was successful, otherwise sets errno. This function is
+// thread-safe as long as no two threads write to the same descriptor.
+extern bool safe_write(int fd, const char* data, int len);
+
 extern void out_of_memory(const char* where);
 
 inline void* safe_realloc(void* ptr, size_t size)
@@ -338,4 +343,5 @@ inline int safe_vsnprintf(char* str, size_t size, const char* format, va_list al
 // handed out by malloc.
 extern void get_memory_usage(unsigned int* total,
 			     unsigned int* malloced);
+
 #endif
diff --git a/testing/scripts/diff-canonifier b/testing/scripts/diff-canonifier
index 3cb213a3f7..4d04b3372c 100755
--- a/testing/scripts/diff-canonifier
+++ b/testing/scripts/diff-canonifier
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@
 #
 # Default canonifier used with the tests in testing/btest/*.
 
-`dirname $0`/diff-remove-timestamps
+`dirname $0`/diff-remove-timestamps | grep -v XXX