diff --git a/contrib/bc/bc/main.c b/contrib/bc/bc/main.c
index 0189e1904053..d2bbdfe29463 100644
--- a/contrib/bc/bc/main.c
+++ b/contrib/bc/bc/main.c
@@ -137,16 +137,19 @@ main (argc, argv)
   char *env_value;
   char *env_argv[30];
   int   env_argc;
+  extern FILE *rl_outstream;
   
   /* Initialize many variables. */
   compile_only = FALSE;
   use_math = FALSE;
   warn_not_std = FALSE;
   std_only = FALSE;
-  if (isatty(0) && isatty(1)) 
+  if (isatty(0) && isatty(1))
     interactive = TRUE;
-  else
+  else {
     interactive = FALSE;
+    rl_outstream = stderr;
+  }
   quiet = FALSE;
   file_names = NULL;
 
diff --git a/contrib/bc/bc/scan.l b/contrib/bc/bc/scan.l
index 8b5b25dc142c..70c8df6a4167 100644
--- a/contrib/bc/bc/scan.l
+++ b/contrib/bc/bc/scan.l
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ static char *rl_start = (char *)NULL;
 static char  rl_len = 0;
 
 /* Definitions for readline access. */
+extern FILE *rl_outstream;
 extern FILE *rl_instream;
 _PROTOTYPE(char *readline, (char *));
 
@@ -107,8 +108,8 @@ rl_input (buf, result, max)
       if (rl_len != 1)
 	add_history (rl_line); 
       rl_line[rl_len-1] = '\n';
-      printf ("\r");
-      fflush (stdout);
+      fprintf (rl_outstream,"\r");
+      fflush (rl_outstream);
     }
 
   if (rl_len <= max)