lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm | 6 +++++-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm
index 99856286adb13d0085e16a636df95d80f501e49a..7cd67f12f6e5e893d970e82e0e4f1cd03e620127 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm
@@ -117,7 +117,11 @@ 			File::Path::mkpath($dir);
 		}
 	}
 	return unless defined $flag;
-	$self->{xdb} = Search::Xapian::WritableDatabase->new($dir, $flag);
+	my $xdb = eval { Search::Xapian::WritableDatabase->new($dir, $flag) };
+	if ($@) {
+		die "Failed opening $dir: ", $@;
+	}
+	$self->{xdb} = $xdb;
 }
 
 sub add_val ($$$) {