lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm       | 3 +--
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm | 7 +------

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
index 8a14ace486bc9c0deee84cecc9684dfab488b060..b78d70de95f4e1ef7d616fd33d55f58d62e43d0c 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
@@ -544,12 +544,11 @@ 	my ($self, $child_error, $msg) = @_; # child_error is $?
 	local $current_lei = $self;
 	$child_error ||= 1 << 8;
 	warn(substr($msg, -1, 1) eq "\n" ? $msg : "$msg\n") if defined $msg;
+	$self->{child_error} ||= $child_error;
 	if ($self->{pkt_op_p}) { # to top lei-daemon
 		$self->{pkt_op_p}->pkt_do('child_error', $child_error);
 	} elsif ($self->{sock}) { # to lei(1) client
 		send($self->{sock}, "child_error $child_error", MSG_EOR);
-	} else { # non-lei admin command
-		$self->{child_error} ||= $child_error;
 	} # else noop if client disconnected
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm
index b982f9198b88f6fc310a5bb54905770172ecb007..b8b6b504704a3fbe63c09ff279a4548019dedbe1 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm
@@ -30,12 +30,9 @@
 sub _wq_done_wait { # dwaitpid callback (via wq_eof)
 	my ($arg, $pid) = @_;
 	my ($mrr, $lei) = @$arg;
-	my $f = "$mrr->{dst}/mirror.done";
 	if ($?) {
 		$lei->child_error($?);
-	} elsif (!$mrr->{dry_run} && !unlink($f)) {
-		warn("unlink($f): $!\n") unless $!{ENOENT};
-	} else {
+	} elsif (!$lei->{child_error}) {
 		if (!$mrr->{dry_run} && $lei->{cmd} ne 'public-inbox-clone') {
 			require PublicInbox::LeiAddExternal;
 			PublicInbox::LeiAddExternal::_finish_add_external(
@@ -249,7 +246,6 @@ 		PublicInbox::Admin::progress_prepare($opt, $lei->{2});
 		PublicInbox::Admin::index_inbox($ibx, undef, $opt);
 	}
 	return if defined $self->{cur_dst}; # one of many repos to clone
-	open my $x, '>', "$self->{dst}/mirror.done"; # for _wq_done_wait
 }
 
 sub run_reap {
@@ -1082,7 +1078,6 @@ EOM
 	}
 	dump_manifest($m => $ft) if delete($self->{chg}->{manifest}) || $mis;
 	ft_rename($ft, $manifest, 0666);
-	open my $x, '>', "$self->{dst}/mirror.done"; # for _wq_done_wait
 }
 
 sub start_clone_url {