t/search.t | 3 ++-

diff --git a/t/search.t b/t/search.t
index 9bdd3cee9964ae0ca03d1b97095a5cca3e79f52f..7ef86cd4ac1d5fe6485c291d0f5038beeb53585c 100644
--- a/t/search.t
+++ b/t/search.t
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@ # License: AGPLv3 or later (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt)
 use strict;
 use warnings;
 use Test::More;
+eval { require PublicInbox::Search; };
+plan skip_all => "Xapian missing for search" if $@;
 use File::Temp qw/tempdir/;
-use PublicInbox::Search;
 use Email::MIME;
 use Data::Dumper;
 my $tmpdir = tempdir(CLEANUP => 1);