--- a/libopkg/pkg_parse.c
+++ b/libopkg/pkg_parse.c
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <ctype.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
 
 #include "pkg.h"
 #include "opkg_utils.h"
@@ -239,10 +240,16 @@ pkg_parse_line(void *ptr, const char *li
 
 	case ' ':
 		if ((mask & PFM_DESCRIPTION) && reading_description) {
-			pkg->description = xrealloc(pkg->description,
-						strlen(pkg->description)
-						+ 1 + strlen(line) + 1);
-			strcat(pkg->description, "\n");
+			if (isatty(1)) {
+				pkg->description = xrealloc(pkg->description,
+							strlen(pkg->description)
+							+ 1 + strlen(line) + 1);
+				strcat(pkg->description, "\n");
+			} else {
+				pkg->description = xrealloc(pkg->description,
+							strlen(pkg->description)
+							+ 1 + strlen(line));
+			}
 			strcat(pkg->description, (line));
 			goto dont_reset_flags;
 		} else if ((mask & PFM_CONFFILES) && reading_conffiles) {