diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/utils/tty.rb b/Library/Homebrew/utils/tty.rb
index 81d5f00d7b2a8c7d9aafe2e7e7a6bf2f0fe71a2c..6e321b2f9bb79ed1a87eb38fa8e20f2721559dfb 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/utils/tty.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/utils/tty.rb
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ module Tty
 
   def width
     width = `/bin/stty size 2>/dev/null`.split[1]
-    width ||= `/usr/bin/tput cols 2>/dev/null`.split[0]
+    width = `/usr/bin/tput cols 2>/dev/null`.split[0] if width.to_i.zero?
     width ||= 80
     width.to_i
   end
diff --git a/bin/brew b/bin/brew
index 92febbbee8d4941253843eee44a93affd187d83e..6a3d133adda9d79d30967a097f32f201cbfdf359 100755
--- a/bin/brew
+++ b/bin/brew
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ then
 
   FILTERED_ENV=()
   # Filter all but the specific variables.
-  for VAR in HOME SHELL PATH TERM LOGNAME USER CI TRAVIS SSH_AUTH_SOCK SUDO_ASKPASS \
+  for VAR in HOME SHELL PATH TERM COLUMNS LOGNAME USER CI TRAVIS SSH_AUTH_SOCK SUDO_ASKPASS \
              http_proxy https_proxy ftp_proxy no_proxy all_proxy HTTPS_PROXY FTP_PROXY ALL_PROXY \
              "${!HOMEBREW_@}" "${!TRAVIS_@}"
   do