lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm | 1 +
 t/run.perl                    | 2 +-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
index 49cecacdd2e933666ffe419de8ed2ca6fd206f64..092568528dc6879a5852a37e0c48f42ca415c5de 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
@@ -321,6 +321,7 @@
 	# slurp the redirects back into user-supplied strings
 	for my $fd (1..2) {
 		my $fh = $fhref->[$fd] or next;
+		next unless -f $fh;
 		seek($fh, 0, SEEK_SET) or die "seek: $!";
 		my $redir = $opt->{$fd};
 		local $/;
diff --git a/t/run.perl b/t/run.perl
index 1fb1c5f0b661c8ff1aaece7fdef105966050396a..f4e235b7fd3a800fb8c1cc4ed3c1fef81e87da11 100755
--- a/t/run.perl
+++ b/t/run.perl
@@ -225,6 +225,6 @@ }
 
 print $OLDOUT "1..".($repeat * scalar(@tests))."\n" if $repeat >= 0;
 if ($lei_env && $$ == $owner_pid) {
-	my $opt = {}; # 1 => $OLDOUT, 2 => $OLDERR };
+	my $opt = { 1 => $OLDOUT, 2 => $OLDERR };
 	run_script([qw(lei daemon-kill)], $lei_env, $opt);
 }