diff --git a/Doc/library/platform.rst b/Doc/library/platform.rst
index 99a46fad0605..b0431d96f1d1 100644
--- a/Doc/library/platform.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/platform.rst
@@ -208,7 +208,7 @@ Windows Platform
 Win95/98 specific
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
-.. function:: popen(cmd, mode='r', bufsize=None)
+.. function:: popen(cmd, mode='r', bufsize=-1)
 
    Portable :func:`popen` interface.  Find a working popen implementation
    preferring :func:`win32pipe.popen`.  On Windows NT, :func:`win32pipe.popen`
diff --git a/Lib/os.py b/Lib/os.py
index 3ef3db8ae0ca..a894ee0f2cc1 100644
--- a/Lib/os.py
+++ b/Lib/os.py
@@ -779,11 +779,13 @@ def urandom(n):
         return bs
 
 # Supply os.popen()
-def popen(cmd, mode="r", buffering=None):
+def popen(cmd, mode="r", buffering=-1):
     if not isinstance(cmd, str):
         raise TypeError("invalid cmd type (%s, expected string)" % type(cmd))
     if mode not in ("r", "w"):
         raise ValueError("invalid mode %r" % mode)
+    if buffering == 0 or buffering == None:
+        raise ValueError("popen() does not support unbuffered streams")
     import subprocess, io
     if mode == "r":
         proc = subprocess.Popen(cmd,
diff --git a/Lib/platform.py b/Lib/platform.py
index b01568ca617d..abe917a4d5f6 100755
--- a/Lib/platform.py
+++ b/Lib/platform.py
@@ -411,7 +411,7 @@ def close(self,
     # Alias
     __del__ = close
 
-def popen(cmd, mode='r', bufsize=None):
+def popen(cmd, mode='r', bufsize=-1):
 
     """ Portable popen() interface.
     """
diff --git a/Lib/subprocess.py b/Lib/subprocess.py
index 477f92782100..039b3e63021c 100644
--- a/Lib/subprocess.py
+++ b/Lib/subprocess.py
@@ -711,8 +711,6 @@ def __init__(self, args, bufsize=0, executable=None,
             if errread != -1:
                 errread = msvcrt.open_osfhandle(errread.Detach(), 0)
 
-        if bufsize == 0:
-            bufsize = 1  # Nearly unbuffered (XXX for now)
         if p2cwrite != -1:
             self.stdin = io.open(p2cwrite, 'wb', bufsize)
             if self.universal_newlines:
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py b/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py
index 3cc387b6a3dd..01e670ef72e3 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py
@@ -1216,6 +1216,22 @@ def test_wait_when_sigchild_ignored(self):
                          " non-zero with this error:\n%s" %
                          stderr.decode('utf8'))
 
+    def test_select_unbuffered(self):
+        # Issue #11459: bufsize=0 should really set the pipes as
+        # unbuffered (and therefore let select() work properly).
+        select = support.import_module("select")
+        p = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable, "-c",
+                              'import sys;'
+                              'sys.stdout.write("apple")'],
+                             stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+                             bufsize=0)
+        f = p.stdout
+        try:
+            self.assertEqual(f.read(4), b"appl")
+            self.assertIn(f, select.select([f], [], [], 0.0)[0])
+        finally:
+            p.wait()
+
 
 @unittest.skipUnless(mswindows, "Windows specific tests")
 class Win32ProcessTestCase(BaseTestCase):
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 156ad785693a..2c0751275e54 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -43,6 +43,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #11459: A ``bufsize`` value of 0 in subprocess.Popen() really creates
+  unbuffered pipes, such that select() works properly on them.
+
 - Issue #5421: Fix misleading error message when one of socket.sendto()'s
   arguments has the wrong type.  Patch by Nikita Vetoshkin.