lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm | 2 +-
 t/v2reindex.t                 | 5 +++++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm
index cbd4f003c6581d7121ead99be8b122e05ed25a0c..03590850973e0589000b29884d2f812759d128ae 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm
@@ -1216,7 +1216,7 @@ }
 
 sub index_xap_only { # git->cat_async callback
 	my ($bref, $oid, $type, $size, $smsg) = @_;
-	my $self = $smsg->{self};
+	my $self = delete $smsg->{self};
 	my $idx = idx_shard($self, $smsg->{num});
 	$idx->index_eml(PublicInbox::Eml->new($bref), $smsg);
 	$self->{transact_bytes} += $smsg->{bytes};
diff --git a/t/v2reindex.t b/t/v2reindex.t
index 05ea952f43e1002f08028d5bb277208f816bb8d3..56540c8b1847bbd4ea7aad3d6c0f04cb14569781 100644
--- a/t/v2reindex.t
+++ b/t/v2reindex.t
@@ -543,4 +543,9 @@ # XXX: not deterministic when dealing with ambiguous messages, oh well
 $check_rethread->('3-headed-monster once');
 $check_rethread->('3-headed-monster twice');
 
+my $rdr = { 2 => \(my $err = '') };
+ok(run_script([qw(-index --reindex --xapian-only), $inboxdir], undef, $rdr),
+	'--xapian-only works');
+is($err, '', 'no errors from --xapian-only');
+
 done_testing();