lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearch.pm    | 2 --
 lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearchIdx.pm | 2 --

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearch.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearch.pm
index 2a560935e7c7a0ad27458058e65155348b99e69e..a2b97798bae9da6298ecc6da6b443092b582f0bc 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearch.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearch.pm
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ use strict;
 use v5.10.1;
 use PublicInbox::Over;
 use PublicInbox::Inbox;
-use File::Spec ();
 use PublicInbox::MiscSearch;
 use DBI qw(:sql_types); # SQL_BLOB
 
@@ -18,7 +17,6 @@ use parent qw(PublicInbox::Search);
 
 sub new {
 	my (undef, $topdir) = @_;
-	$topdir = File::Spec->canonpath($topdir);
 	bless {
 		topdir => $topdir,
 		# xpfx => 'ei15'
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearchIdx.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearchIdx.pm
index c4b429df0cf8b5c8e71642d9e2d677837574d15e..f04e044382fca72cef422fa1411b5dde23cefeab 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearchIdx.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearchIdx.pm
@@ -30,13 +30,11 @@ use PublicInbox::V2Writable;
 use PublicInbox::InboxWritable;
 use PublicInbox::ContentHash qw(content_hash);
 use PublicInbox::Eml;
-use File::Spec;
 use PublicInbox::DS qw(now);
 use DBI qw(:sql_types); # SQL_BLOB
 
 sub new {
 	my (undef, $dir, $opt) = @_;
-	$dir = File::Spec->canonpath($dir);
 	my $l = $opt->{indexlevel} // 'full';
 	$l !~ $PublicInbox::SearchIdx::INDEXLEVELS and
 		die "invalid indexlevel=$l\n";