public-inbox.cgi | 3 +--

diff --git a/public-inbox.cgi b/public-inbox.cgi
index da87d2c34800b487cb0ff2d7dc77d5d25bd09d3c..56040676f6ae1142a1b133a3ce2c8a80c741af81 100755
--- a/public-inbox.cgi
+++ b/public-inbox.cgi
@@ -155,8 +155,7 @@ 	my $pid = open my $fh, '-|';
 	defined $pid or die "fork failed: $!\n";
 	if ($pid == 0) {
 		open STDERR, '>', '/dev/null'; # ignore errors
-		exec @cmd;
-		exit 1;
+		exec @cmd or die "exec failed: $!\n";
 	} else {
 		my $blob = eval { local $/; <$fh> };
 		close $fh;