lib/PublicInbox/Emergency.pm | 4 ++--

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Emergency.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Emergency.pm
index e402d30f848342800efb4891c46fc0b826dd585f..4ee862153fdfe3d80d4735b68b7d0e32a5cd43cd 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Emergency.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Emergency.pm
@@ -12,11 +12,11 @@
 sub new {
 	my ($class, $dir) = @_;
 
+	-d $dir or mkdir($dir) or die "failed to mkdir($dir): $!\n";
 	foreach (qw(new tmp cur)) {
 		my $d = "$dir/$_";
 		next if -d $d;
-		require File::Path;
-		File::Path::mkpath($d); # croaks on fatal errors
+		-d $d or mkdir($d) or die "failed to mkdir($d): $!\n";
 	}
 	bless { dir => $dir, files => {}, t => 0, cnt => 0 }, $class;
 }