diff --git a/qa/workunits/cephtool/test.sh b/qa/workunits/cephtool/test.sh
index 1af5e4b5f6951..38f485d7becaf 100755
--- a/qa/workunits/cephtool/test.sh
+++ b/qa/workunits/cephtool/test.sh
@@ -230,10 +230,7 @@ function test_mon_injectargs_SI()
   expect_config_value "mon.a" "mon_pg_warn_min_objects" 10240
   ceph tell mon.a injectargs '--mon_pg_warn_min_objects 1G'
   expect_config_value "mon.a" "mon_pg_warn_min_objects" 1073741824
-  # < /dev/null accounts for the fact that ceph will go in interactive mode
-  # because injectargs is discarded (actually saved for the benefit of 
-  # a tell command that never comes)
-  expect_false ceph injectargs mon.a '--mon_pg_warn_min_objects 10F' < /dev/null 2> /dev/null
+  expect_false ceph tell mon.a injectargs '--mon_pg_warn_min_objects 10F'
   $SUDO ceph daemon mon.a config set mon_pg_warn_min_objects $initial_value
 }
 
@@ -438,7 +435,9 @@ function test_auth()
   # (almost) interactive mode
   echo -e 'auth add client.xx mon allow osd "allow *"\n' | ceph
   ceph auth get client.xx
-  ceph auth del client.xx
+  # script mode
+  echo 'auth del client.xx' | ceph
+  expect_false ceph auth get client.xx
 
   #
   # get / set auid
diff --git a/src/ceph.in b/src/ceph.in
index 017efbca93590..8de12324655cb 100755
--- a/src/ceph.in
+++ b/src/ceph.in
@@ -385,6 +385,25 @@ def ceph_conf(parsed_args, field, name):
 
 PROMPT = 'ceph> '
 
+if sys.stdin.isatty():
+    def read_input():
+        while True:
+            line = raw_input(PROMPT).rstrip()
+            if line in ['q', 'quit', 'Q']:
+                return None
+            if line:
+                return line
+else:
+    def read_input():
+        while True:
+            line = sys.stdin.readline()
+            if not line:
+                return None
+            line = line.rstrip()
+            if line:
+                return line
+
+
 def new_style_command(parsed_args, cmdargs, target, sigdict, inbuf, verbose):
     """
     Do new-style command dance.
@@ -412,18 +431,14 @@ def new_style_command(parsed_args, cmdargs, target, sigdict, inbuf, verbose):
             else:
                 return -errno.EINVAL, '', 'invalid command'
         else:
-            # do the command-interpreter looping
-            # for raw_input to do readline cmd editing
-            import readline
-
             if sys.stdin.isatty():
-                prompt = PROMPT
-            else:
-                prompt = ''
+                # do the command-interpreter looping
+                # for raw_input to do readline cmd editing
+                import readline
 
             while True:
-                interactive_input = raw_input(prompt)
-                if interactive_input in ['q', 'quit', 'Q']:
+                interactive_input = read_input()
+                if interactive_input is None:
                     return 0, '', ''
                 cmdargs = parse_cmdargs(shlex.split(interactive_input))[2]
                 try: