lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm | 4 +++-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
index 3cb7a32779f168e7fbdae1e141d39da20fb4d22a..005f6f7a33c15af50add827b3074ad430de911d1 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
@@ -507,7 +507,9 @@ 		$rhs =~ s/\n/\n$padding/sg; # LHS pad continuation lines
 		$msg .= $rhs;
 		$msg .= "\n";
 	}
-	print { $self->{$errmsg ? 2 : 1} } $msg;
+	my $out = $self->{$errmsg ? 2 : 1};
+	start_pager($self) if -t $out;
+	print $out $msg;
 	x_it($self, $errmsg ? 1 << 8 : 0); # stderr => failure
 	undef;
 }