lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm | 6 ++----
 t/psgi_search.t               | 6 ++++++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm
index bf4415f011b8ea79603a1de8c4da348b312e9d08..219006a0d7070dbfc58530255eba7aeba1919ff4 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm
@@ -309,10 +309,8 @@ sub new {
 	my ($class, $qp) = @_;
 
 	my $r = $qp->{r};
-	my $l = $qp->{l} || '200';
-	if (! ($l =~ /(\d+)/ && $l <= $LIM)) {
-		$l = $LIM;
-	}
+	my ($l) = (($qp->{l} || '') =~ /(\d+)/);
+	$l = $LIM if !$l || $l > $LIM;
 	bless {
 		q => $qp->{'q'},
 		x => $qp->{x} || '',
diff --git a/t/psgi_search.t b/t/psgi_search.t
index 1df38691c1c07a1b3eb825683d691325c3be1316..84b3daa3402ac071b4562addc70ef3e6e547e71d 100644
--- a/t/psgi_search.t
+++ b/t/psgi_search.t
@@ -64,6 +64,12 @@ 	is(1, scalar keys %uniq, 'all query values identical in HTML');
 	is('%C3%86var', (keys %uniq)[0], 'matches original query');
 	ok(index($html, 'by &#198;var Arnfj&#246;r&#240; Bjarmason') >= 0,
 		"displayed Ævar's name properly in HTML");
+
+	my $warn = [];
+	local $SIG{__WARN__} = sub { push @$warn, @_ };
+	$res = $cb->(GET('/test/?q=s:test&l=5e'));
+	is($res->code, 200, 'successful search result');
+	is_deeply([], $warn, 'no warnings from non-numeric comparison');
 });
 
 done_testing();