diff --git a/tools/virtio/vringh_test.c b/tools/virtio/vringh_test.c
index 98ff808d6f0c2d170d844f8a395cb28075b7d0eb..43d3a6aa1dcff66ba56f2893ace1e478f52eba77 100644
--- a/tools/virtio/vringh_test.c
+++ b/tools/virtio/vringh_test.c
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ static int parallel_test(u64 features,
 			 bool fast_vringh)
 {
 	void *host_map, *guest_map;
-	int fd, mapsize, to_guest[2], to_host[2];
+	int pipe_ret, fd, mapsize, to_guest[2], to_host[2];
 	unsigned long xfers = 0, notifies = 0, receives = 0;
 	unsigned int first_cpu, last_cpu;
 	cpu_set_t cpu_set;
@@ -161,8 +161,11 @@ static int parallel_test(u64 features,
 	host_map = mmap(NULL, mapsize, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
 	guest_map = mmap(NULL, mapsize, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
 
-	pipe(to_guest);
-	pipe(to_host);
+	pipe_ret = pipe(to_guest);
+	assert(!pipe_ret);
+
+	pipe_ret = pipe(to_host);
+	assert(!pipe_ret);
 
 	CPU_ZERO(&cpu_set);
 	find_cpus(&first_cpu, &last_cpu);