lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm | 12 ++++++++----
 t/xcpdb-reshard.t             |  7 +++++--

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
index 532cbee676b2ac5b5184ddf24df2ed417c757bf0..68785969fc8a27c939c9b74e74ee159181bb73ed 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
@@ -65,11 +65,15 @@ 	my $maybe = pop @mods if $mods[-1] =~ /\A[0-9]+\z/;
 	my @need;
 	for my $mod (@mods) {
 		if ($mod eq 'Search::Xapian') {
-			require PublicInbox::Search;
-			PublicInbox::Search::load_xapian() and next;
+			if (eval { require PublicInbox::Search } &&
+				PublicInbox::Search::load_xapian()) {
+				next;
+			}
 		} elsif ($mod eq 'Search::Xapian::WritableDatabase') {
-			require PublicInbox::SearchIdx;
-			PublicInbox::SearchIdx::load_xapian_writable() and next;
+			if (eval { require PublicInbox::SearchIdx } &&
+				PublicInbox::SearchIdx::load_xapian_writable()){
+					next;
+			}
 		} else {
 			eval "require $mod";
 		}
diff --git a/t/xcpdb-reshard.t b/t/xcpdb-reshard.t
index 2a0aeb45a605832dde5933e1673bbf35eb684974..9f0034f1581305b5c32ab29f463876385087790a 100644
--- a/t/xcpdb-reshard.t
+++ b/t/xcpdb-reshard.t
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ require_mods(qw(DBD::SQLite Search::Xapian));
 require_git('2.6');
 use PublicInbox::MIME;
 use PublicInbox::InboxWritable;
-use PublicInbox::Search;
+require PublicInbox::Search;
 
 my $mime = PublicInbox::MIME->create(
 	header => [
@@ -62,7 +62,10 @@
 	# ensure docids in Xapian match NNTP article numbers
 	my $tot = 0;
 	my %tmp = %nums;
-	my $XapianDatabase = $PublicInbox::Search::X{Database};
+	my $XapianDatabase = do {
+		no warnings 'once';
+		$PublicInbox::Search::X{Database};
+	};
 	foreach my $d (@new_shards) {
 		my $xdb = $XapianDatabase->new($d);
 		$tot += $xdb->get_doccount;