lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm        |  8 ++++----
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm  | 12 +++++++-----
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm | 20 ++++++++++++--------

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
index e2f22a7564a4366e46a65a3a0af82833b57f5785..17ad18b9cf09aa304b211f5bc966e6cb548454de 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
@@ -305,7 +305,8 @@ sub qerr ($;@) { $_[0]->{opt}->{quiet} or err(shift, @_) }
 
 sub fail ($$;$) {
 	my ($self, $buf, $exit_code) = @_;
-	err($self, $buf);
+	err($self, $buf) if defined $buf;
+	syswrite($self->{op_pipe}, '!') if $self->{op_pipe}; # fail_handler
 	x_it($self, ($exit_code // 1) << 8);
 	undef;
 }
@@ -365,11 +366,10 @@ 		delete $src->{$i};
 	}
 }
 
-# triggers sigpipe_handler
-sub note_sigpipe {
+sub note_sigpipe { # triggers sigpipe_handler
 	my ($self, $fd) = @_;
 	close(delete($self->{$fd})); # explicit close silences Perl warning
-	syswrite($self->{op_pipe}, '!') if $self->{op_pipe};
+	syswrite($self->{op_pipe}, '|') if $self->{op_pipe};
 	x_it($self, 13);
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm
index 01e7cec52e25d2500558dd5eb08c5d2f854e6775..c6c5f84b7a08b0a0a16a89ee3ce32d002de0fb20 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm
@@ -296,14 +296,14 @@ 	my ($dst, $buf, $smsg) = @_;
 	my $kw = $smsg->{kw} // [];
 	my $sfx = join('', sort(map { $kw2char{$_} // () } @$kw));
 	my $rand = ''; # chosen by die roll :P
-	my ($tmp, $fh, $final);
+	my ($tmp, $fh, $final, $ok);
 	my $common = $smsg->{blob} // _rand;
 	if (defined(my $pct = $smsg->{pct})) { $common .= "=$pct" }
 	do {
 		$tmp = $dst.'tmp/'.$rand.$common;
-	} while (!sysopen($fh, $tmp, O_CREAT|O_EXCL|O_WRONLY) &&
+	} while (!($ok = sysopen($fh, $tmp, O_CREAT|O_EXCL|O_WRONLY)) &&
 		$! == EEXIST && ($rand = _rand.','));
-	if (print $fh $$buf and close($fh)) {
+	if ($ok && print $fh $$buf and close($fh)) {
 		# ignore new/ and write only to cur/, otherwise MUAs
 		# with R/W access to the Maildir will end up doing
 		# a mass rename which can take a while with thousands
@@ -316,9 +316,10 @@ 		} while (!link($tmp, $final) && $! == EEXIST &&
 			($rand = _rand.','));
 		unlink($tmp) or warn "W: failed to unlink $tmp: $!\n";
 	} else {
-		my $err = $!;
+		my $err = "Error writing $smsg->{blob} to $dst: $!\n";
+		$_[0] = undef; # clobber dst
 		unlink($tmp);
-		die "Error writing $smsg->{blob} to $dst: $err";
+		die $err;
 	}
 }
 
@@ -329,6 +330,7 @@ 	$dedupe->prepare_dedupe if $dedupe;
 	my $dst = $lei->{ovv}->{dst};
 	sub { # for git_to_mail
 		my ($buf, $smsg, $eml) = @_;
+		$dst // return $lei->fail; # dst may be undef-ed in last run
 		$buf //= \($eml->as_string);
 		return _buf2maildir($dst, $buf, $smsg) if !$dedupe;
 		$eml //= PublicInbox::Eml->new($$buf); # copy buf
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm
index 4d390ee4661444d403ad3f45fdcbb7b32868a3fb..f630e79a9b1cb48687e5e1c8f2fbb3d3e615180b 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm
@@ -356,14 +356,17 @@ 	$lei->fail($@) if $@;
 	syswrite($lei->{op_pipe}, '.') == 1 or die "do_post_augment trigger: $!"
 }
 
+sub fail_handler ($;$$) {
+	my ($lei, $code, $io) = @_;
+	if (my $lxs = delete $lei->{lxs}) {
+		$lxs->wq_wait_old($lei) if $lxs->wq_kill_old; # lei-daemon
+	}
+	close($io) if $io; # needed to avoid warnings on SIGPIPE
+	$lei->x_it($code // (1 >> 8));
+}
+
 sub sigpipe_handler { # handles SIGPIPE from l2m/lxs workers
-	my ($lei) = @_;
-	my $lxs = delete $lei->{lxs};
-	if ($lxs && $lxs->wq_kill_old) { # is this the daemon?
-		$lxs->wq_wait_old($lei);
-	}
-	close(delete $lei->{1}) if $lei->{1};
-	$lei->x_it(13);
+	fail_handler($_[0], 13, delete $_[0]->{1});
 }
 
 sub do_query {
@@ -384,7 +387,8 @@
 	$lei->event_step_init; # wait for shutdowns
 	my $done_op = {
 		'' => [ \&query_done, $lei ],
-		'!' => [ \&sigpipe_handler, $lei ]
+		'|' => [ \&sigpipe_handler, $lei ],
+		'!' => [ \&fail_handler, $lei ]
 	};
 	my $in_loop = exists $lei->{sock};
 	$done = PublicInbox::OpPipe->new($done, $done_op, $in_loop);