lib/PublicInbox/Xapcmd.pm | 15 ++++++++++-----
 t/extsearch.t             |  7 +++++++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Xapcmd.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Xapcmd.pm
index b962fa848c8ada9e0b3b029876cce808deb194a5..daef896c37e9a435639505211d7d68e3f74a531f 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Xapcmd.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Xapcmd.pm
@@ -22,11 +22,16 @@
 	$SIG{INT} or die 'BUG: $SIG{INT} not handled';
 	my @old_shard;
 	my $over_chg;
+	my $mode;
 
 	while (my ($old, $newdir) = each %$tmp) {
 		next if $old eq ''; # no invalid paths
-		my @st = stat($old);
-		if (!@st && !defined($opt->{reshard})) {
+		$mode //= do {
+			my ($dname) = ($old =~ m!(.*/)[^/]+/*\z!);
+			(stat($dname))[2];
+		};
+		my $have_old = -e $old;
+		if (!$have_old && !defined($opt->{reshard})) {
 			die "failed to stat($old): $!";
 		}
 
@@ -46,13 +51,13 @@ 			push @old_shard, $old;
 			next;
 		}
 
-		if (@st) {
-			chmod($st[2] & 07777, $new) or die "chmod $old: $!\n";
+		chmod($mode & 07777, $new) or die "chmod($new): $!\n";
+		if ($have_old) {
 			rename($old, "$new/old") or
 					die "rename $old => $new/old: $!\n";
 		}
 		rename($new, $old) or die "rename $new => $old: $!\n";
-		if (@st) {
+		if ($have_old) {
 			my $prev = "$old/old";
 			remove_tree($prev) or
 				die "failed to remove $prev: $!\n";
diff --git a/t/extsearch.t b/t/extsearch.t
index 6c074022aa134fa4116863655c02413eaf9ee931..ca586f61c29f5ecab581d56a1dc7a1bdb71e51c5 100644
--- a/t/extsearch.t
+++ b/t/extsearch.t
@@ -423,6 +423,7 @@ 	ok(!run_script([@cmd, qw(--dry-run)], undef, $opt),
 		'--dry-run alone fails');
 }
 
+# chmod 0755, $home or xbail "chmod: $!";
 for my $j (1, 3, 6) {
 	my $o = { 2 => \(my $err = '') };
 	my $d = "$home/extindex-j$j";
@@ -445,11 +446,17 @@ 	my $xdb_str = "$es->{xdb}";
 	ok($es->cleanup_shards, 'cleanup_shards noop');
 	is("$es->{xdb}", $xdb_str, '{xdb} unchanged');
 
+	my @ei_dir = glob("$d/ei*/");
+	chmod 0755, $ei_dir[0] or xbail "chmod: $!";
+	my $mode = sprintf('%04o', 07777 & (stat($ei_dir[0]))[2]);
+	is($mode, '0755', 'mode set on ei*/ dir');
 	my $o = { 2 => \(my $err = '') };
 	ok(run_script([qw(-xcpdb -R4), $d]), 'xcpdb R4');
 	my @dirs = glob("$d/ei*/?");
 	for my $i (0..3) {
 		is(grep(m!/ei[0-9]+/$i\z!, @dirs), 1, "shard [$i] created");
+		my $m = sprintf('%04o', 07777 & (stat($dirs[$i]))[2]);
+		is($m, $mode, "shard [$i] mode");
 	}
 	is($es->cleanup_shards, undef, 'cleanup_shards cleaned');
 	ok(!defined($es->{xdb}), 'old {xdb} gone');