lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm         | 2 --
 lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdxShard.pm | 2 --

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm
index fb813159ef779bfc1eb06d24d6e76f570bea2e4b..b61d4b31a49ac4255734c3997ec38e475b41fd5d 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm
@@ -73,8 +73,6 @@ 	$self->{in} = $in_r;
 	$self->{out} = $out_w;
 	$self->{pid} = $pid;
 	$self->{nchg} = 0;
-	binmode $out_w, ':raw' or die "binmode :raw failed: $!";
-	binmode $in_r, ':raw' or die "binmode :raw failed: $!";
 	($in_r, $out_w);
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdxShard.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdxShard.pm
index baf7352a3d9ca36c9c03e9e17da2a31cb1f15ab5..b51d148b161492bcb07d04f36e60a569d89b45d4 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdxShard.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdxShard.pm
@@ -26,8 +26,6 @@ sub spawn_worker {
 	my ($self, $v2w, $shard) = @_;
 	my ($r, $w);
 	pipe($r, $w) or die "pipe failed: $!\n";
-	binmode $r, ':raw';
-	binmode $w, ':raw';
 	$w->autoflush(1);
 	my $pid = fork;
 	defined $pid or die "fork failed: $!\n";