Documentation/mknews.perl     | 3 ++-
 lib/PublicInbox/Feed.pm       | 3 +--
 lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm | 3 +--
 lib/PublicInbox/View.pm       | 9 +++++----

diff --git a/Documentation/mknews.perl b/Documentation/mknews.perl
index 4a5d0e563bc425a9539349c761059cbc12aa48f9..f053e2bfb9e558541778762a4d6b3b79bd0b633d 100755
--- a/Documentation/mknews.perl
+++ b/Documentation/mknews.perl
@@ -105,7 +105,8 @@ sub mime2html {
 	my ($out, $eml, $ctx) = @_;
 	my $smsg = $ctx->{smsg} = bless {}, 'PublicInbox::Smsg';
 	$smsg->populate($eml);
-	print $out PublicInbox::View::eml_entry($ctx, $eml, 1) or die;
+	$ctx->{msgs} = [ 1 ]; # for <hr> in eml_entry
+	print $out PublicInbox::View::eml_entry($ctx, $eml) or die;
 }
 
 sub html_start {
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Feed.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Feed.pm
index 476d946f515d2882e881d61ab3c0117c38042721..bf095a2cc8e3f7540e4baa66a792781956617431 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Feed.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Feed.pm
@@ -51,8 +51,7 @@ sub new_html_i {
 	my ($ctx, $eml) = @_;
 	$ctx->zmore($ctx->html_top) if exists $ctx->{-html_tip};
 
-	$eml and return PublicInbox::View::eml_entry($ctx, $eml,
-						scalar @{$ctx->{msgs}});
+	$eml and return PublicInbox::View::eml_entry($ctx, $eml);
 	my $smsg = shift @{$ctx->{msgs}} or
 		$ctx->zmore(PublicInbox::View::pagination_footer(
 						$ctx, './new.html'));
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm
index 623b16fb22cd0d6282d01d001a16dd367531080e..84c04c6c4713923d73f5ed5cb856e8720d19c3df 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm
@@ -294,8 +294,7 @@ # callback for PublicInbox::WwwStream::getline
 sub mset_thread_i {
 	my ($ctx, $eml) = @_;
 	$ctx->zmore($ctx->html_top) if exists $ctx->{-html_tip};
-	$eml and return PublicInbox::View::eml_entry($ctx, $eml,
-						scalar @{$ctx->{msgs}});
+	$eml and return PublicInbox::View::eml_entry($ctx, $eml);
 	my $smsg = shift @{$ctx->{msgs}} or
 		$ctx->zmore(${delete($ctx->{skel})});
 	$smsg;
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/View.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/View.pm
index 60dad6bac0ec96679c0fb81b91f4f4a6824b73e9..d7ec4eb0a1a63f2500b911eaa4638bd7565e21a3 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/View.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/View.pm
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@
 # Displays the text of of the message for /$INBOX/$MSGID/[Tt]/ endpoint
 # this is already inside a <pre>
 sub eml_entry {
-	my ($ctx, $eml, $more) = @_;
+	my ($ctx, $eml) = @_;
 	my $smsg = delete $ctx->{smsg};
 	my $subj = delete $smsg->{subject};
 	my $mid_raw = $smsg->{mid};
@@ -267,7 +267,8 @@ 	} else {
 		$hr = $ctx->{-hr};
 	}
 
-	$rv .= $more ? '</pre><hr><pre>' : '</pre>' if $hr;
+	# do we have more messages? start a new <pre> if so
+	$rv .= scalar(@{$ctx->{msgs}}) ? '</pre><hr><pre>' : '</pre>' if $hr;
 	$rv;
 }
 
@@ -368,7 +369,7 @@
 sub thread_eml_entry {
 	my ($ctx, $eml) = @_;
 	my ($beg, $end) = thread_adj_level($ctx, $ctx->{level});
-	$beg . '<pre>' . eml_entry($ctx, $eml, 0) . '</pre>' . $end;
+	$beg . '<pre>' . eml_entry($ctx, $eml) . '</pre>' . $end;
 }
 
 sub next_in_queue ($$) {
@@ -463,7 +464,7 @@ 		if (exists $ctx->{-html_tip}) {
 			$ctx->{-title_html} = ascii_html($smsg->{subject});
 			$ctx->zmore($ctx->html_top);
 		}
-		return eml_entry($ctx, $eml, scalar @{$ctx->{msgs}});
+		return eml_entry($ctx, $eml);
 	} else {
 		while (my $smsg = shift @{$ctx->{msgs}}) {
 			return $smsg if exists($smsg->{blob});