lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm | 9 ++++++++-
 t/convert-compact.t           | 3 +--
 t/indexlevels-mirror.t        | 6 ++----
 t/nntpd.t                     | 2 +-
 t/xcpdb-reshard.t             | 2 +-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
index 428191791b5ff35788dc365804d477eeec6a58a9..299b9c6a830833966df288687270d27ae95e1b49 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ use Fcntl qw(FD_CLOEXEC F_SETFD F_GETFD :seek);
 use POSIX qw(dup2);
 use IO::Socket::INET;
 our @EXPORT = qw(tmpdir tcp_server tcp_connect require_git require_mods
-	run_script start_script key2sub xsys xqx eml_load tick);
+	run_script start_script key2sub xsys xqx eml_load tick
+	have_xapian_compact);
 
 sub eml_load ($) {
 	my ($path, $cb) = @_;
@@ -395,6 +396,12 @@ 			die "FAIL: ",join(' ', $key, @argv), ": $!\n";
 		}
 	}
 	PublicInboxTestProcess->new($pid, $tail_pid);
+}
+
+sub have_xapian_compact () {
+	require PublicInbox::Spawn;
+	# $ENV{XAPIAN_COMPACT} is used by PublicInbox/Xapcmd.pm, too
+	PublicInbox::Spawn::which($ENV{XAPIAN_COMPACT} || 'xapian-compact');
 }
 
 package PublicInboxTestProcess;
diff --git a/t/convert-compact.t b/t/convert-compact.t
index 575262e8e5d3360b85825d686c39ba3835ae6e34..e479476d8589aac7be5a6f024febf31df9002682 100644
--- a/t/convert-compact.t
+++ b/t/convert-compact.t
@@ -4,11 +4,10 @@ use strict;
 use warnings;
 use Test::More;
 use PublicInbox::Eml;
-use PublicInbox::Spawn qw(which);
 use PublicInbox::TestCommon;
 require_git(2.6);
 require_mods(qw(DBD::SQLite Search::Xapian));
-which('xapian-compact') or
+have_xapian_compact or
 	plan skip_all => 'xapian-compact missing for '.__FILE__;
 
 use_ok 'PublicInbox::V2Writable';
diff --git a/t/indexlevels-mirror.t b/t/indexlevels-mirror.t
index 291e0d2fc121c8f5dc2d3440580d13ca19aea86e..b12bd3cb2b177276cb01397ad660cf10dc9f571e 100644
--- a/t/indexlevels-mirror.t
+++ b/t/indexlevels-mirror.t
@@ -6,13 +6,11 @@ use Test::More;
 use PublicInbox::Eml;
 use PublicInbox::Inbox;
 use PublicInbox::InboxWritable;
-use PublicInbox::Spawn qw(which);
 require PublicInbox::Admin;
 use PublicInbox::TestCommon;
 my $PI_TEST_VERSION = $ENV{PI_TEST_VERSION} || 2;
 require_git('2.6') if $PI_TEST_VERSION == 2;
 require_mods(qw(DBD::SQLite));
-my $have_xapian_compact = which($ENV{XAPIAN_COMPACT} || 'xapian-compact');
 
 my $mime = PublicInbox::Eml->new(<<'EOF');
 From: a@example.com
@@ -43,7 +41,7 @@ 	$im->done;
 
 	# index master (required for v1)
 	my @cmd = (qw(-index -j0), $ibx->{inboxdir}, "-L$level");
-	push @cmd, '-c' if $have_xapian_compact;
+	push @cmd, '-c' if have_xapian_compact;
 	ok(run_script(\@cmd, undef, { 2 => \$err }), 'index master');
 	my $ro_master = PublicInbox::Inbox->new({
 		inboxdir => $ibx->{inboxdir},
@@ -164,7 +162,7 @@ 	is(PublicInbox::Admin::detect_indexlevel($ro_mirror), $level,
 	   'indexlevel detectable by Admin '.$v.$level);
 
 	SKIP: {
-		skip 'xapian-compact missing', 1 if !$have_xapian_compact;
+		skip 'xapian-compact missing', 1 if have_xapian_compact;
 		my $cmd = [ qw(-compact), $mirror ];
 		ok(run_script($cmd, undef, { 2 => \$err}), "compact $level");
 	}
diff --git a/t/nntpd.t b/t/nntpd.t
index 14db1a93019771426635cecc8fafedd9d2c7c920..c7a7ee6bb3ad512a1ed0b12807ae93016a58be7d 100644
--- a/t/nntpd.t
+++ b/t/nntpd.t
@@ -349,7 +349,7 @@ 	}
 	# -compact requires Xapian
 	SKIP: {
 		require_mods('Search::Xapian', 2);
-		which('xapian-compact') or skip 'xapian-compact missing', 2;
+		have_xapian_compact or skip 'xapian-compact missing', 2;
 		is(xsys(qw(git config), "--file=$home/.public-inbox/config",
 				"publicinbox.$group.indexlevel", 'medium'),
 			0, 'upgraded indexlevel');
diff --git a/t/xcpdb-reshard.t b/t/xcpdb-reshard.t
index c1af5d9a8f669ac53f25d00e925a9e928b651750..ede736c1524b5597cf0c151aa1b57b70c4ebd9a0 100644
--- a/t/xcpdb-reshard.t
+++ b/t/xcpdb-reshard.t
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ # ensure we can go up or down in shards, or stay the same:
 for my $R (qw(2 4 1 3 3)) {
 	delete $ibx->{search}; # release old handles
 	my $cmd = [@xcpdb, "-R$R", $ibx->{inboxdir}];
-	push @$cmd, '--compact' if $R == 1;
+	push @$cmd, '--compact' if $R == 1 && have_xapian_compact;
 	ok(run_script($cmd), "xcpdb -R$R");
 	my @new_shards = grep(m!/\d+\z!, glob("$ibx->{inboxdir}/xap*/*"));
 	is(scalar(@new_shards), $R, 'resharded to two shards');