examples/public-inbox.psgi        |  1 +
 lib/PublicInbox/GitHTTPBackend.pm | 15 ++++++---------

diff --git a/examples/public-inbox.psgi b/examples/public-inbox.psgi
index e97f917fbe8bdd46a3569f982bdde0212ae91cfc..98cde92d3d25566a94898264aef18c9415fab7b2 100644
--- a/examples/public-inbox.psgi
+++ b/examples/public-inbox.psgi
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ my $www = PublicInbox::WWW->new;
 
 # share the public-inbox code itself:
 my $src = $ENV{SRC_GIT_DIR}; # '/path/to/public-inbox.git'
+$src = PublicInbox::Git->new($src) if defined $src;
 
 builder {
 	eval {
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/GitHTTPBackend.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/GitHTTPBackend.pm
index 86b8ebccf03fb4b4521bd2ce840b0fc93ed5088e..4ad3fd1ee3aca9ef0b3c44e3a9ac6598163ba825 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/GitHTTPBackend.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/GitHTTPBackend.pm
@@ -46,6 +46,9 @@
 sub serve {
 	my ($env, $git, $path) = @_;
 
+	# XXX compatibility... ugh, can we stop supporting this?
+	$git = PublicInbox::Git->new($git) unless ref($git);
+
 	# Documentation/technical/http-protocol.txt in git.git
 	# requires one and exactly one query parameter:
 	if ($env->{QUERY_STRING} =~ /\Aservice=git-\w+-pack\z/ ||
@@ -98,7 +101,7 @@ 	} else {
 		return r(404);
 	}
 
-	my $f = (ref $git ? $git->{git_dir} : $git) . '/' . $path;
+	my $f = $git->{git_dir} . '/' . $path;
 	return r(404) unless -f $f && -r _; # just in case it's a FIFO :P
 	my $size = -s _;
 
@@ -196,14 +199,8 @@ 				REQUEST_METHOD)) {
 		my $val = $env->{$name};
 		$env{$name} = $val if defined $val;
 	}
-	my ($git_dir, $limiter);
-	if (ref $git) {
-		$limiter = $git->{-httpbackend_limiter} || $default_limiter;
-		$git_dir = $git->{git_dir};
-	} else {
-		$limiter = $default_limiter;
-		$git_dir = $git;
-	}
+	my $limiter = $git->{-httpbackend_limiter} || $default_limiter;
+	my $git_dir = $git->{git_dir};
 	$env{GIT_HTTP_EXPORT_ALL} = '1';
 	$env{PATH_TRANSLATED} = "$git_dir/$path";
 	my $rdr = { 0 => fileno($in) };