diff --git a/src/jobs.c b/src/jobs.c
index 606d603..79a087e 100644
--- a/src/jobs.c
+++ b/src/jobs.c
@@ -96,8 +96,6 @@ static int ttyfd = -1;
 
 /* current job */
 static struct job *curjob;
-/* number of presumed living untracked jobs */
-static int jobless;
 
 STATIC void set_curjob(struct job *, unsigned);
 STATIC int jobno(const struct job *);
@@ -556,8 +554,7 @@ showjobs(struct output *out, int mode)
 	TRACE(("showjobs(%x) called\n", mode));
 
 	/* If not even one one job changed, there is nothing to do */
-	while (dowait(DOWAIT_NORMAL, NULL) > 0)
-		continue;
+	dowait(DOWAIT_NORMAL, NULL);
 
 	for (jp = curjob; jp; jp = jp->prev_job) {
 		if (!(mode & SHOW_CHANGED) || jp->changed)
@@ -614,7 +611,7 @@ waitcmd(int argc, char **argv)
 				jp->waited = 1;
 				jp = jp->prev_job;
 			}
-			if (dowait(DOWAIT_WAITCMD, 0) <= 0)
+			if (!dowait(DOWAIT_WAITCMD, 0))
 				goto sigout;
 		}
 	}
@@ -636,9 +633,8 @@ start:
 		} else
 			job = getjob(*argv, 0);
 		/* loop until process terminated or stopped */
-		while (job->state == JOBRUNNING)
-			if (dowait(DOWAIT_WAITCMD, 0) <= 0)
-				goto sigout;
+		if (!dowait(DOWAIT_WAITCMD, job))
+			goto sigout;
 		job->waited = 1;
 		retval = getstatus(job);
 repeat:
@@ -890,18 +886,14 @@ forkchild(struct job *jp, union node *n, int mode)
 	}
 	for (jp = curjob; jp; jp = jp->prev_job)
 		freejob(jp);
-	jobless = 0;
 }
 
 STATIC inline void
 forkparent(struct job *jp, union node *n, int mode, pid_t pid)
 {
 	TRACE(("In parent shell:  child = %d\n", pid));
-	if (!jp) {
-		while (jobless && dowait(DOWAIT_NORMAL, 0) > 0);
-		jobless++;
+	if (!jp)
 		return;
-	}
 #if JOBS
 	if (mode != FORK_NOJOB && jp->jobctl) {
 		int pgrp;
@@ -975,17 +967,10 @@ waitforjob(struct job *jp)
 	int st;
 
 	TRACE(("waitforjob(%%%d) called\n", jp ? jobno(jp) : 0));
-	if (!jp) {
-		int pid = gotsigchld;
-
-		while (pid > 0)
-			pid = dowait(DOWAIT_NORMAL, NULL);
-
+	dowait(jp ? DOWAIT_BLOCK : DOWAIT_NORMAL, jp);
+	if (!jp)
 		return exitstatus;
-	}
 
-	while (jp->state == JOBRUNNING)
-		dowait(DOWAIT_BLOCK, jp);
 	st = getstatus(jp);
 #if JOBS
 	if (jp->jobctl) {
@@ -1013,8 +998,7 @@ waitforjob(struct job *jp)
  * Wait for a process to terminate.
  */
 
-STATIC int
-dowait(int block, struct job *job)
+static int waitone(int block, struct job *job)
 {
 	int pid;
 	int status;
@@ -1057,8 +1041,6 @@ dowait(int block, struct job *job)
 		if (thisjob)
 			goto gotjob;
 	}
-	if (!JOBS || !WIFSTOPPED(status))
-		jobless--;
 	goto out;
 
 gotjob:
@@ -1093,45 +1075,34 @@ out:
 	return pid;
 }
 
+static int dowait(int block, struct job *jp)
+{
+	int pid = block == DOWAIT_NORMAL ? gotsigchld : 1;
+
+	while (jp ? jp->state == JOBRUNNING : pid > 0) {
+		if (!jp)
+			gotsigchld = 0;
+		pid = waitone(block, jp);
+	}
 
+	return pid;
+}
 
 /*
- * Do a wait system call.  If job control is compiled in, we accept
- * stopped processes.  If block is zero, we return a value of zero
- * rather than blocking.
+ * Do a wait system call.  If block is zero, we return -1 rather than
+ * blocking.  If block is DOWAIT_WAITCMD, we return 0 when a signal
+ * other than SIGCHLD interrupted the wait.
  *
- * System V doesn't have a non-blocking wait system call.  It does
- * have a SIGCLD signal that is sent to a process when one of it's
- * children dies.  The obvious way to use SIGCLD would be to install
- * a handler for SIGCLD which simply bumped a counter when a SIGCLD
- * was received, and have waitproc bump another counter when it got
- * the status of a process.  Waitproc would then know that a wait
- * system call would not block if the two counters were different.
- * This approach doesn't work because if a process has children that
- * have not been waited for, System V will send it a SIGCLD when it
- * installs a signal handler for SIGCLD.  What this means is that when
- * a child exits, the shell will be sent SIGCLD signals continuously
- * until is runs out of stack space, unless it does a wait call before
- * restoring the signal handler.  The code below takes advantage of
- * this (mis)feature by installing a signal handler for SIGCLD and
- * then checking to see whether it was called.  If there are any
- * children to be waited for, it will be.
+ * We use sigsuspend in conjunction with a non-blocking wait3 in
+ * order to ensure that waitcmd exits promptly upon the reception
+ * of a signal.
  *
- * If neither SYSV nor BSD is defined, we don't implement nonblocking
- * waits at all.  In this case, the user will not be informed when
- * a background process until the next time she runs a real program
- * (as opposed to running a builtin command or just typing return),
- * and the jobs command may give out of date information.
+ * For code paths other than waitcmd we either use a blocking wait3
+ * or a non-blocking wait3.  For the latter case the caller of dowait
+ * must ensure that it is called over and over again until all dead
+ * children have been reaped.  Otherwise zombies may linger.
  */
 
-#ifdef SYSV
-STATIC int gotsigchild;
-
-STATIC int onsigchild() {
-	gotsigchild = 1;
-}
-#endif
-
 
 STATIC int
 waitproc(int block, int *status)
@@ -1146,13 +1117,10 @@ waitproc(int block, int *status)
 #endif
 
 	do {
-		gotsigchld = 0;
 		err = wait3(status, flags, NULL);
-		if (err || !block)
+		if (err || (err = -!block))
 			break;
 
-		block = 0;
-
 		sigfillset(&mask);
 		sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, &mask, &oldmask);
 
@@ -1160,6 +1128,8 @@ waitproc(int block, int *status)
 			sigsuspend(&oldmask);
 
 		sigclearmask();
+
+		err = 0;
 	} while (gotsigchld);
 
 	return err;
