diff --git a/io.c b/io.c
index 75f39132..1bc3e2f3 100644
--- a/io.c
+++ b/io.c
@@ -1548,8 +1548,6 @@ void close_multiplexing_out(void)
 
 void start_write_batch(int fd)
 {
-	write_stream_flags(batch_fd);
-
 	/* Some communication has already taken place, but we don't
 	 * enable batch writing until here so that we can write a
 	 * canonical record of the communication even though the
diff --git a/main.c b/main.c
index 9a1bec0f..6d58dd8c 100644
--- a/main.c
+++ b/main.c
@@ -1360,6 +1360,9 @@ int main(int argc,char *argv[])
 		}
 		if (read_batch)
 			read_stream_flags(batch_fd);
+		else
+			write_stream_flags(batch_fd);
+
 	}
 	if (write_batch < 0)
 		dry_run = 1;