diff --git a/src/nvim/os/shell.c b/src/nvim/os/shell.c
index 7449ac637c..1b279f18f5 100644
--- a/src/nvim/os/shell.c
+++ b/src/nvim/os/shell.c
@@ -244,6 +244,9 @@ static int shell(const char *cmd,
       job_stop(job);
       return -1;
     }
+    // close the input stream after everything is written
+    job_write_cb(job, shell_write_cb);
+  } else {
     // close the input stream, let the process know that no more input is
     // coming
     job_close_in(job);
@@ -447,3 +450,9 @@ static void write_output(char *output, size_t remaining)
     curbuf->b_no_eol_lnum = 0;
   }
 }
+
+static void shell_write_cb(WStream *wstream, void *data, int status)
+{
+  Job *job = data;
+  job_close_in(job);
+}
diff --git a/test/functional/shell/viml_system_spec.lua b/test/functional/shell/viml_system_spec.lua
index b36b4691b9..91e115aedf 100644
--- a/test/functional/shell/viml_system_spec.lua
+++ b/test/functional/shell/viml_system_spec.lua
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
 -- - `systemlist()`
 
 local helpers = require('test.functional.helpers')
-local eq, clear, eval, feed =
-  helpers.eq, helpers.clear, helpers.eval, helpers.feed
+local eq, clear, eval, feed, nvim =
+  helpers.eq, helpers.clear, helpers.eval, helpers.feed, helpers.nvim
 
 
 local function create_file_with_nuls(name)
@@ -55,6 +55,21 @@ describe('system()', function()
     end)
   end)
 
+  describe('passing a lot of input', function()
+    it('returns the program output', function()
+      local input = {}
+      -- write more than 1mb of data, which should be enough to overcome
+      -- the os buffer limit and force multiple event loop iterations to write
+      -- everything
+      for i = 1, 0xffff do
+        input[#input + 1] = '01234567890ABCDEFabcdef'
+      end
+      input = table.concat(input, '\n')
+      nvim('set_var', 'input', input)
+      eq(input, eval('system("cat -", g:input)'))
+    end)
+  end)
+
   describe('passing number as input', function()
     it('stringifies the input', function()
       eq('1', eval('system("cat", 1)'))
@@ -129,6 +144,17 @@ describe('systemlist()', function()
     end)
   end)
 
+  describe('passing a lot of input', function()
+    it('returns the program output', function()
+      local input = {}
+      for i = 1, 0xffff do
+        input[#input + 1] = '01234567890ABCDEFabcdef'
+      end
+      nvim('set_var', 'input', input)
+      eq(input, eval('systemlist("cat -", g:input)'))
+    end)
+  end)
+
   describe('with output containing NULs', function()
     local fname = 'Xtest'