diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
index c5d9e733512ddd4d266c85d4f5cdec4a7d74fa56..b04b8f40e92f55ecc76dd8c2f239e4960096d2dc 100755
--- a/git-send-email.perl
+++ b/git-send-email.perl
@@ -22,6 +22,17 @@
 use Getopt::Long;
 use Data::Dumper;
 
+package FakeTerm;
+sub new {
+	my ($class, $reason) = @_;
+	return bless \$reason, shift;
+}
+sub readline {
+	my $self = shift;
+	die "Cannot use readline on FakeTerm: $$self";
+}
+package main;
+
 # most mail servers generate the Date: header, but not all...
 $ENV{LC_ALL} = 'C';
 use POSIX qw/strftime/;
@@ -46,7 +57,12 @@
 # Example reply to:
 #$initial_reply_to = ''; #<20050203173208.GA23964@foobar.com>';
 
-my $term = new Term::ReadLine 'git-send-email';
+my $term = eval {
+	new Term::ReadLine 'git-send-email';
+};
+if ($@) {
+	$term = new FakeTerm "$@: going non-interactive";
+}
 
 # Begin by accumulating all the variables (defined above), that we will end up
 # needing, first, from the command line:
diff --git a/t/t9001-send-email.sh b/t/t9001-send-email.sh
index a61da1efbdb6ac547c1d1167a4caa849b1ee4f9b..e9ea33c18d8e0ffa2612e52748bbab4bf13ef513 100755
--- a/t/t9001-send-email.sh
+++ b/t/t9001-send-email.sh
@@ -25,10 +25,13 @@ test_expect_success \
      git add fake.sendmail
      GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="A" git commit -a -m "Second."'
 
-test_expect_success \
-    'Extract patches and send' \
-    'git format-patch -n HEAD^1
-     git send-email -from="Example <nobody@example.com>" --to=nobody@example.com --smtp-server="$(pwd)/fake.sendmail" ./0001*txt'
+test_expect_success 'Extract patches' '
+    patches=`git format-patch -n HEAD^1`
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'Send patches' '
+     git send-email -from="Example <nobody@example.com>" --to=nobody@example.com --smtp-server="$(pwd)/fake.sendmail" $patches 2>errors
+'
 
 cat >expected <<\EOF
 !nobody@example.com!