lib/PublicInbox/NNTP.pm | 2 +-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/NNTP.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/NNTP.pm
index 8ad7adc1fd0a3ca49a5635dc19c8b4c7c95b6c01..b223eb07d417bad27115bcf5411090f4e9ab257c 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/NNTP.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/NNTP.pm
@@ -502,7 +502,7 @@
 	# these can momentarily double the memory consumption :<
 	$$msg =~ s/^\./../smg;
 	$$msg =~ s/(?<!\r)\n/\r\n/sg; # Alpine barfs without this
-	$$msg .= "\r\n" unless $$msg =~ /\r\n\z/s;
+	$$msg .= "\r\n" unless substr($$msg, -2, 2) eq "\r\n";
 	$self->msg_more($$msg);
 }