lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm | 4 +++-
 script/public-inbox-watch       | 3 ++-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm
index c15e138436cd8964e061a40f725212ef425103af..f81a917c5ab74070425a309c3ae3f25a93981fd4 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm
@@ -179,6 +179,8 @@ 	_force_mid($mime);
 	$im->add($mime, $self->{spamcheck});
 }
 
+sub quit { $_[0]->{quit} = 1 }
+
 sub watch {
 	my ($self) = @_;
 	my $cb = sub { _try_fsn_paths($self, \@_) };
@@ -188,7 +190,7 @@ 	# lazy load here, we may support watching via IMAP IDLE
 	# in the future...
 	require Filesys::Notify::Simple;
 	my $watcher = Filesys::Notify::Simple->new($mdir);
-	$watcher->wait($cb) while (1);
+	$watcher->wait($cb) until ($self->{quit});
 }
 
 sub scan {
diff --git a/script/public-inbox-watch b/script/public-inbox-watch
index bb655929fdbf0050a5f37d4ed622eab759962114..a72180c90b74c89f35315196e237a632953671f0 100755
--- a/script/public-inbox-watch
+++ b/script/public-inbox-watch
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ use PublicInbox::Config;
 my ($config, $watch_md);
 my $reload = sub {
 	$config = PublicInbox::Config->new;
+	$watch_md->quit if $watch_md;
 	$watch_md = PublicInbox::WatchMaildir->new($config);
 };
 $reload->();
@@ -17,5 +18,5 @@ 	$SIG{HUP} = $reload;
 	$SIG{USR1} = $scan;
 	$SIG{ALRM} = sub { $SIG{ALRM} = 'DEFAULT'; $scan->() };
 	alarm(1);
-	$watch_md->watch;
+	$watch_md->watch while ($watch_md);
 }