int fids[2][2];

if (0 != pipe(fids[0])) {
    throw sys_error(errno, strerror(errno));
}
if (0 != pipe(fids[1])) {
    int myerrno = errno;
    close(fids[0][0]);
    close(fids[0][1]);
    throw sys_error(myerrno, strerror(myerrno));
}

pid_t pid = fork();
switch(pid)
{
case 0:
    // Close read ends
    close(fids[0][0]);
    close(fids[1][0]);

    // Dup write ends to stdout
    if (-1 == dup2(fids[0][1], STDOUT_FILENO)) {
        _exit(1);
    }
    cerr << "about to test stdout" << endl; // this prints
    cout << "Testing stdout!" << endl; // this doesn't. EPIPE here
    cerr << "Testing stderr!" << endl; // obv doesn't

    exec(...);
    _exit(1);
    break;
case -1:
    int myno = errno;
    // close everything
    close(fids[0][0]);
    close(fids[0][1]);
    close(fids[1][0]);
    close(fids[1][1]);
    // error
    throw sys_error(myno, strerror(myno));
    break;
}
// this should be parent only
// close write ends
close(fids[0][1]);
close(fids[1][1]);

wait(...)