lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm | 1 +

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
index 17ca637eb304fd6d2fc246e38976aea4bd60319d..d3ac19b2bb7b71b92eec74e78a27b82368f2d6a0 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
@@ -453,6 +453,7 @@ sub _lei_atfork_child {
 	my ($self, $persist) = @_;
 	# we need to explicitly close things which are on stack
 	if ($persist) {
+		chdir '/' or die "chdir(/): $!";
 		my @io = delete @$self{qw(0 1 2 sock)};
 		unless ($self->{oneshot}) {
 			close($_) for @io;