lib/PublicInbox/InputPipe.pm | 2 +-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/InputPipe.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/InputPipe.pm
index 00813a0701b172d4688997d3bf27116f98e4c15c..e1e26e20b9d287ba779bd6f32a9ad81c8f8a06d9 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/InputPipe.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/InputPipe.pm
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ }
 
 sub event_step {
 	my ($self) = @_;
-	my $r = sysread($self->{sock}, my $rbuf, 65536);
+	my $r = sysread($self->{sock} // return, my $rbuf, 65536);
 	if ($r) {
 		$self->{cb}->(@{$self->{args} // []}, $rbuf);
 		return $self->requeue; # may be regular file or pipe