lib/PublicInbox/Filter/Base.pm   | 2 ++
 lib/PublicInbox/InboxWritable.pm | 3 +--
 lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm  | 3 +--
 script/public-inbox-purge        | 4 +---

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Filter/Base.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Filter/Base.pm
index 7a0c720f679d793cdbc541eae5118e7c012f9152..81adab2aa15888af4a5c0349c3ce6834ed44e090 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Filter/Base.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Filter/Base.pm
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ package PublicInbox::Filter::Base;
 use strict;
 use warnings;
 use PublicInbox::MsgIter;
+use parent qw(Exporter);
+our @EXPORT_OK = qw(REJECT); # we may export IGNORE if/when needed
 
 sub No ($) { "*** We only accept plain-text mail, No $_[0] ***" }
 
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/InboxWritable.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/InboxWritable.pm
index d83912511451af8f5b14fc295616c88faa43ef1c..228e786ce7ecc07946cb74769a615d608e7b72ff 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/InboxWritable.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/InboxWritable.pm
@@ -7,8 +7,7 @@ use strict;
 use warnings;
 use base qw(PublicInbox::Inbox);
 use PublicInbox::Import;
-use PublicInbox::Filter::Base;
-*REJECT = *PublicInbox::Filter::Base::REJECT;
+use PublicInbox::Filter::Base qw(REJECT);
 
 use constant {
 	PERM_UMASK => 0,
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm
index 003baec90f3d14905a09d210744fdaedd60468c2..7803b58ac3399b742f6957047329d40d4e118bbf 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm
@@ -10,9 +10,8 @@ use PublicInbox::MIME;
 use PublicInbox::Spawn qw(spawn);
 use PublicInbox::InboxWritable;
 use File::Temp 0.19 ();
-use PublicInbox::Filter::Base;
+use PublicInbox::Filter::Base qw(REJECT);
 use PublicInbox::Spamcheck;
-*REJECT = *PublicInbox::Filter::Base::REJECT;
 *maildir_path_load = *PublicInbox::InboxWritable::maildir_path_load;
 
 sub new {
diff --git a/script/public-inbox-purge b/script/public-inbox-purge
index f103ccf7e9795a6201902b30e645fad5f12aeb01..22b56a8e771f19a586dcb3a696b5fd587566003b 100755
--- a/script/public-inbox-purge
+++ b/script/public-inbox-purge
@@ -9,11 +9,9 @@ use warnings;
 use Getopt::Long qw(:config gnu_getopt no_ignore_case auto_abbrev);
 use PublicInbox::AdminEdit;
 PublicInbox::Admin::check_require('-index');
-use PublicInbox::Filter::Base;
+use PublicInbox::Filter::Base qw(REJECT);
 use PublicInbox::MIME;
 require PublicInbox::V2Writable;
-
-*REJECT = \&PublicInbox::Filter::Base::REJECT;
 
 my $usage = "$0 [--all] [INBOX_DIRS] </path/to/message";
 my $opt = { verbose => 1, all => 0, -min_inbox_version => 2 };