lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm | 3 ++-
 script/public-inbox-init      | 6 ++++++
 t/init.t                      | 3 +++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
index 2e3e9eccce7980d424368e3337ee83bb0c3a4e54..14dac03fae54ed78cffb417c59af59005ffaf93d 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/TestCommon.pm
@@ -605,7 +605,8 @@ 	for my $V (1, 2) {
 		run_script([qw(-init --skip-docdata), "-V$V",
 				'--newsgroup', "t.v$V", "t$V",
 				"$test_home/t$V", "http://example.com/t$V",
-				"t$V\@example.com" ]) or BAIL_OUT "init v$V";
+				"t$V\@example.com" ]) or xbail "init v$V";
+		unlink "$test_home/t$V/description" or xbail "unlink $!";
 	}
 	require PublicInbox::Config;
 	require PublicInbox::InboxWritable;
diff --git a/script/public-inbox-init b/script/public-inbox-init
index ced882359870bcf183df91833e4bf126fb4a6974..78a4d3bd75748f65110bb3e8af18c7d4fc976df8 100755
--- a/script/public-inbox-init
+++ b/script/public-inbox-init
@@ -246,3 +246,9 @@
 rename $pi_config_tmp, $pi_config or
 	die "failed to rename `$pi_config_tmp' to `$pi_config': $!\n";
 undef $auto_unlink; # trigger ->DESTROY
+
+my $f = "$inboxdir/description";
+if (sysopen $fh, $f, O_CREAT|O_EXCL|O_WRONLY) {
+	print $fh "public inbox for $address[0]\n" or die "print($f): $!";
+	close $fh or die "close($f): $!";
+}
diff --git a/t/init.t b/t/init.t
index efa3314d365b03c049a9c2939b2529992d2a6874..752e5af93c0b60ce519cf838331494a2d5c8c472 100644
--- a/t/init.t
+++ b/t/init.t
@@ -99,6 +99,9 @@ 		   qw(http://example.com/abcd abcd@example.com) ];
 	$err = '';
 	ok(run_script($cmd, $env, $rdr), 'initializes non-existent hierarchy');
 	ok(-d "$tmpdir/a/b/c/d", 'directory created');
+	is(PublicInbox::Inbox::try_cat("$tmpdir/a/b/c/d/description"),
+		"public inbox for abcd\@example.com\n", 'description set');
+
 	open my $fh, '>', "$tmpdir/d" or BAIL_OUT "open: $!";
 	close $fh;
 	$cmd = [ '-init', 'd-f-conflict', "$tmpdir/d/f/conflict",