script/public-inbox-convert |  7 +++++--
 script/public-inbox-init    | 10 ++++++++--
 t/convert-compact.t         | 20 ++++++++++----------
 t/init.t                    | 12 ++++++++++++

diff --git a/script/public-inbox-convert b/script/public-inbox-convert
index 017411fb0d126b890115dabed97d4dac440f0ffe..b61c743fd807157e9925201c8b89cbe7ca48e389 100755
--- a/script/public-inbox-convert
+++ b/script/public-inbox-convert
@@ -52,7 +52,9 @@ Cwd->import('abs_path');
 require PublicInbox::Config;
 require PublicInbox::InboxWritable;
 
-$old_dir = abs_path($old_dir);
+my $abs = abs_path($old_dir);
+die "failed to resolve $old_dir: $!\n" if (!defined($abs));
+
 my $cfg = PublicInbox::Config->new;
 my $old;
 $cfg->each_inbox(sub {
@@ -72,6 +74,7 @@ 	});
 }
 die "Only conversion from v1 inboxes is supported\n" if $old->version >= 2;
 
+require File::Spec;
 require PublicInbox::Admin;
 my $detected = PublicInbox::Admin::detect_indexlevel($old);
 $old->{indexlevel} //= $detected;
@@ -85,7 +88,7 @@ 	$env = PublicInbox::Admin::index_prepare($opt, $cfg);
 }
 local %ENV = (%$env, %ENV) if $env;
 my $new = { %$old };
-$new->{inboxdir} = abs_path($new_dir);
+$new->{inboxdir} = File::Spec->canonpath($new_dir);
 $new->{version} = 2;
 $new = PublicInbox::InboxWritable->new($new, { nproc => $opt->{jobs} });
 $new->{-no_fsync} = 1 if !$opt->{fsync};
diff --git a/script/public-inbox-init b/script/public-inbox-init
index ae4a575ca3ba80423fcc0fa0579256a0386baacb..c775eb3146ba485bb22f16a03d45506c1cef85cb 100755
--- a/script/public-inbox-init
+++ b/script/public-inbox-init
@@ -138,8 +138,9 @@
 my $pfx = "publicinbox.$name";
 my @x = (qw/git config/, "--file=$pi_config_tmp");
 
-require Cwd;
-$inboxdir = Cwd::abs_path($inboxdir);
+require File::Spec;
+$inboxdir = File::Spec->canonpath($inboxdir);
+
 die "`\\n' not allowed in `$inboxdir'\n" if $inboxdir =~ /\n/s;
 if (-f "$inboxdir/inbox.lock") {
 	if (!defined $version) {
@@ -185,6 +186,11 @@ 		die "--skip-docdata ignored with --indexlevel=basic\n";
 	$ibx->{-skip_docdata} = $skip_docdata;
 }
 $ibx->init_inbox(0, $skip_epoch, $skip_artnum);
+require Cwd;
+my $tmp = Cwd::abs_path($inboxdir);
+defined($tmp) or die "failed to resolve $inboxdir: $!\n";
+$inboxdir = $tmp;
+die "`\\n' not allowed in `$inboxdir'\n" if $inboxdir =~ /\n/s;
 
 # needed for git prior to v2.1.0
 umask(0077) if defined $perm;
diff --git a/t/convert-compact.t b/t/convert-compact.t
index 26a8fca025fb5ba93057ce0b81754d732b5932ce..575262e8e5d3360b85825d686c39ba3835ae6e34 100644
--- a/t/convert-compact.t
+++ b/t/convert-compact.t
@@ -78,33 +78,33 @@
 $cmd = [ '-convert', '--no-index', $ibx->{inboxdir}, "$tmpdir/no-index" ];
 ok(run_script($cmd, undef, $rdr), 'convert --no-index works');
 
-$cmd = [ '-convert', $ibx->{inboxdir}, "$tmpdir/v2" ];
+$cmd = [ '-convert', $ibx->{inboxdir}, "$tmpdir/x/v2" ];
 ok(run_script($cmd, undef, $rdr), 'convert works');
-@xdir = glob("$tmpdir/v2/xap*/*");
+@xdir = glob("$tmpdir/x/v2/xap*/*");
 foreach (@xdir) {
 	my @st = stat($_);
 	is($st[2] & 07777, -f _ ? 0644 : 0755,
 		'sharedRepository respected after convert');
 }
 
-$cmd = [ '-compact', "$tmpdir/v2" ];
+$cmd = [ '-compact', "$tmpdir/x/v2" ];
 my $env = { NPROC => 2 };
 ok(run_script($cmd, $env, $rdr), 'v2 compact works');
-$ibx->{inboxdir} = "$tmpdir/v2";
+$ibx->{inboxdir} = "$tmpdir/x/v2";
 $ibx->{version} = 2;
 is($ibx->mm->num_highwater, $hwm, 'highwater mark unchanged in v2 inbox');
 
-@xdir = glob("$tmpdir/v2/xap*/*");
+@xdir = glob("$tmpdir/x/v2/xap*/*");
 foreach (@xdir) {
 	my @st = stat($_);
 	is($st[2] & 07777, -f _ ? 0644 : 0755,
 		'sharedRepository respected after v2 compact');
 }
-is(((stat("$tmpdir/v2/msgmap.sqlite3"))[2]) & 07777, 0644,
+is(((stat("$tmpdir/x/v2/msgmap.sqlite3"))[2]) & 07777, 0644,
 	'sharedRepository respected for v2 msgmap');
 
-@xdir = (glob("$tmpdir/v2/git/*.git/objects/*/*"),
-	 glob("$tmpdir/v2/git/*.git/objects/pack/*"));
+@xdir = (glob("$tmpdir/x/v2/git/*.git/objects/*/*"),
+	 glob("$tmpdir/x/v2/git/*.git/objects/pack/*"));
 foreach (@xdir) {
 	my @st = stat($_);
 	is($st[2] & 07777, -f _ ? 0444 : 0755,
@@ -116,12 +116,12 @@ is(scalar @$msgs, 1, 'only one message in history');
 
 $ibx = undef;
 $err = '';
-$cmd = [ qw(-index -j0 --reindex -c), "$tmpdir/v2" ];
+$cmd = [ qw(-index -j0 --reindex -c), "$tmpdir/x/v2" ];
 ok(run_script($cmd, undef, $rdr), '--reindex -c');
 like($err, qr/xapian-compact/, 'xapian-compact ran (-c)');
 
 $rdr->{2} = \(my $err2 = '');
-$cmd = [ qw(-index -j0 --reindex -cc), "$tmpdir/v2" ];
+$cmd = [ qw(-index -j0 --reindex -cc), "$tmpdir/x/v2" ];
 ok(run_script($cmd, undef, $rdr), '--reindex -c -c');
 like($err2, qr/xapian-compact/, 'xapian-compact ran (-c -c)');
 ok(($err2 =~ tr/\n/\n/) > ($err =~ tr/\n/\n/), '-compacted twice');
diff --git a/t/init.t b/t/init.t
index a5a9debc6453dd799ebc1b312101df423e14ec45..dba59231c71ed245b7dde33bc523f1aac377f721 100644
--- a/t/init.t
+++ b/t/init.t
@@ -59,6 +59,18 @@ 		'public-inbox-init rejects LF in inboxdir');
 	like($err, qr/`\\n' not allowed in `/s, 'reported \\n');
 	is_deeply([glob("$tmpdir/.public-inbox/pi-init-*")], [],
 		'no junk files left behind');
+
+	# "git init" does this, too
+	$cmd = [ '-init', 'deep-non-existent', "$tmpdir/a/b/c/d",
+		   qw(http://example.com/abcd abcd@example.com) ];
+	$err = '';
+	ok(run_script($cmd, $env, $rdr), 'initializes non-existent hierarchy');
+	ok(-d "$tmpdir/a/b/c/d", 'directory created');
+	open my $fh, '>', "$tmpdir/d" or BAIL_OUT "open: $!";
+	close $fh;
+	$cmd = [ '-init', 'd-f-conflict', "$tmpdir/d/f/conflict",
+		   qw(http://example.com/conflict onflict@example.com) ];
+	ok(!run_script($cmd, $env, $rdr), 'fails on D/F conflict');
 }
 
 SKIP: {