lib/PublicInbox/NNTP.pm | 15 ++++++++++++---
 t/nntpd.t               |  1 +

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/NNTP.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/NNTP.pm
index b07e1845c2321962bb7962a926cc04032ce10aff..56d08385da0f6a4b924e07ffb01662ad288f0715 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/NNTP.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/NNTP.pm
@@ -998,10 +998,19 @@ 	}
 	$rv;
 }
 
+sub not_idle_long ($$) {
+	my ($self, $now) = @_;
+	defined(my $fd = $self->{fd}) or return;
+	my $ary = $EXPMAP->{$fd} or return;
+	my $exp_at = $ary->[0] + $EXPTIME;
+	$exp_at > $now;
+}
+
 # for graceful shutdown in PublicInbox::Daemon:
-sub busy () {
-	my ($self) = @_;
-	($self->{rbuf} ne '' || $self->{long_res} || $self->{write_buf_size});
+sub busy {
+	my ($self, $now) = @_;
+	($self->{rbuf} ne '' || $self->{long_res} || $self->{write_buf_size} ||
+	 not_idle_long($self, $now));
 }
 
 1;
diff --git a/t/nntpd.t b/t/nntpd.t
index 5875b737360b35a41803f1327339e6fe8e4f2e0d..7192d7819dd6d12e9a758581da373042cc39091b 100644
--- a/t/nntpd.t
+++ b/t/nntpd.t
@@ -219,6 +219,7 @@ 			'got 5xx response for unoptimized HDR');
 		is(scalar @r, 1, 'only one response line');
 	}
 
+	$n = $s = undef;
 	is($pid, waitpid($pid, 0), 'nntpd exited successfully');
 	my $eout = eval {
 		local $/;