diff --git a/pageserver/src/walredo.rs b/pageserver/src/walredo.rs
index f29823aff8..9052d0addd 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/walredo.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/walredo.rs
@@ -699,17 +699,10 @@ impl WalRedoProcess {
         let stderr = child.stderr.take().unwrap();
         let stderr = tokio::process::ChildStderr::from_std(stderr)
             .context("convert to tokio::ChildStderr")?;
-        macro_rules! set_nonblock_or_log_err {
-            ($file:ident) => {{
-                let res = set_nonblock($file.as_raw_fd());
-                if let Err(e) = &res {
-                    error!(error = %e, file = stringify!($file), pid = child.id(), "set_nonblock failed");
-                }
-                res
-            }};
-        }
-        set_nonblock_or_log_err!(stdin)?;
-        set_nonblock_or_log_err!(stdout)?;
+        let stdin =
+            tokio::process::ChildStdin::from_std(stdin).context("convert to tokio::ChildStdin")?;
+        let stdout = tokio::process::ChildStdout::from_std(stdout)
+            .context("convert to tokio::ChildStdout")?;
 
         // all fallible operations post-spawn are complete, so get rid of the guard
         let child = scopeguard::ScopeGuard::into_inner(child);
@@ -755,11 +748,11 @@ impl WalRedoProcess {
             tenant_shard_id,
             child: Some(child),
             stdin: tokio::sync::Mutex::new(ProcessInput {
-                stdin: tokio::process::ChildStdin::from_std(stdin).unwrap(), // TODO error handling
+                stdin,
                 n_requests: 0,
             }),
             stdout: tokio::sync::Mutex::new(ProcessOutput {
-                stdout: tokio::process::ChildStdout::from_std(stdout).unwrap(), // TODO error handling
+                stdout,
                 pending_responses: VecDeque::new(),
                 n_processed_responses: 0,
             }),
@@ -826,7 +819,11 @@ impl WalRedoProcess {
 
     async fn apply_wal_records0(&self, writebuf: &[u8]) -> anyhow::Result<Bytes> {
         let input = self.stdin.lock().await;
-        input.stdin.write_all(writebuf).await.unwrap(); // TODO: bring back timeout & error handling
+        input
+            .stdin
+            .write_all(writebuf)
+            .await
+            .context("write to walredo stdin")?;
         let request_no = input.n_requests;
         input.n_requests += 1;
         drop(input);
@@ -849,7 +846,11 @@ impl WalRedoProcess {
             // We expect the WAL redo process to respond with an 8k page image. We read it
             // into this buffer.
             let mut resultbuf = vec![0; BLCKSZ.into()];
-            output.stdout.read_exact(&mut resultbuf).await.unwrap();
+            output
+                .stdout
+                .read_exact(&mut resultbuf)
+                .await
+                .context("read walredo stdout")?;
             output
                 .pending_responses
                 .push_back(Some(Bytes::from(resultbuf)));