diff --git a/st.c b/st.c
index 5f2352a..81973ee 100644
--- a/st.c
+++ b/st.c
@@ -823,17 +823,24 @@ ttyread(void)
 	int ret;
 
 	/* append read bytes to unprocessed bytes */
-	if ((ret = read(cmdfd, buf+buflen, LEN(buf)-buflen)) < 0)
+	ret = read(cmdfd, buf+buflen, LEN(buf)-buflen);
+
+	switch (ret) {
+	case 0:
+		fputs("Found EOF in input\n", stderr);
+		exit(0);
+	case -1:
 		die("couldn't read from shell: %s\n", strerror(errno));
-	buflen += ret;
+	default:
+		buflen += ret;
+		written = twrite(buf, buflen, 0);
+		buflen -= written;
+		/* keep any uncomplete utf8 char for the next call */
+		if (buflen > 0)
+			memmove(buf, buf + written, buflen);
+		return ret;
 
-	written = twrite(buf, buflen, 0);
-	buflen -= written;
-	/* keep any uncomplete utf8 char for the next call */
-	if (buflen > 0)
-		memmove(buf, buf + written, buflen);
-
-	return ret;
+	}
 }
 
 void