lib/PublicInbox/View.pm | 9 +++++++--

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/View.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/View.pm
index 8d2e5424428a953ca74a1a1c157ead60b78f76c0..2b6061aeaaa0655cb621a25c2db686871ff58b5f 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/View.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/View.pm
@@ -33,8 +33,13 @@ 		if ($nr == 1) {
 			$tip . multipart_text_as_html($mime, '') .
 				'</pre><hr />'
 		} elsif ($nr == 2) {
-			'<pre>' . html_footer($hdr, 1, $ctx) .
-			'</pre>' . msg_reply($ctx, $hdr);
+			# fake an EOF if generating the footer fails;
+			# we want to at least show the message if something
+			# here crashes:
+			eval {
+				'<pre>' . html_footer($hdr, 1, $ctx) .
+				'</pre>' . msg_reply($ctx, $hdr)
+			};
 		} else {
 			undef
 		}