lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm | 7 +++----

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm
index 13671a4fa3313f79e3c4d53813ab1cb815ecb032..65da4ddf466ad4a7309655e6436a4abb58abf742 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm
@@ -191,11 +191,10 @@ 	# quiet down wide character warnings:
 	binmode $w, ':utf8' or die "binmode :utf8 failed: $!";
 	print $w "commit $ref\nmark :$commit\n",
 		"author $name <$email> $date\n",
-		"committer $self->{ident} ", now2822(), "\n",
-		"data ", (bytes::length($subject) + 1), "\n",
+		"committer $self->{ident} ", now2822(), "\n" or wfail;
+	binmode $w, ':raw' or die "binmode :raw failed: $!";
+	print $w "data ", (bytes::length($subject) + 1), "\n",
 		$subject, "\n\n" or wfail;
-	binmode $w, ':raw' or die "binmode :raw failed: $!";
-
 	if ($tip ne '') {
 		print $w 'from ', ($parent ? $parent : $tip), "\n" or wfail;
 	}