diff -r 6bebaf40e925 tools/xenstore/xs.c
--- a/tools/xenstore/xs.c	Tue Jul 20 13:42:17 2010 +0100
+++ b/tools/xenstore/xs.c	Thu Aug 26 17:08:55 2010 -0400
@@ -271,6 +271,7 @@
 {
 #ifdef USE_PTHREAD
 	if (h->read_thr_exists) {
+		h->read_thr_exists = 0;
 		pthread_cancel(h->read_thr);
 		pthread_join(h->read_thr, NULL);
 	}
@@ -667,7 +668,7 @@
 	mutex_lock(&h->watch_mutex);
 
 	/* Wait on the condition variable for a watch to fire. */
-	while (list_empty(&h->watch_list) && read_thread_exists(h))
+	while (list_empty(&h->watch_list) && (!read_from_thread || read_thread_exists(h)))
 		condvar_wait(&h->watch_condvar, &h->watch_mutex, h);
 	if (!read_thread_exists(h)) {
 		mutex_unlock(&h->watch_mutex);
@@ -966,13 +967,8 @@
 {
 	struct xs_handle *h = arg;
 
-	while (read_message(h) != -1)
-		continue;
-
-	/* Kick anyone waiting for a reply */
-	pthread_mutex_lock(&h->request_mutex);
-	h->read_thr_exists = 0;
-	pthread_mutex_unlock(&h->request_mutex);
+	while (h->read_thr_exists)
+		read_message(h);
 
 	pthread_mutex_lock(&h->reply_mutex);
 	pthread_cond_signal(&h->reply_condvar);