INSTALL                   | 11 ++++++-----
 Makefile.PL               |  4 ----
 lib/PublicInbox/Daemon.pm |  3 ++-
 lib/PublicInbox/HTTP.pm   |  1 +
 lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm  | 45 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
 t/config_limiter.t        |  1 -

diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
index 313a295151883ed580ea5dac7186b95c40053402..834376278bc216da76a586a1c88dd02028ba729f 100644
--- a/INSTALL
+++ b/INSTALL
@@ -36,11 +36,6 @@ * Date::Parse                      deb: libtimedate-perl
                                    pkg: p5-TimeDate
                                    rpm: perl-TimeDate
 
-* Devel::Peek                      deb: libperl5.$MINOR (e.g. libperl5.24)
-                                   pkg: perl5
-                                   rpm: perl-Devel-Peek
-                                   (typically installed alongside Perl5)
-
 * Email::MIME                      deb: libemail-mime-perl
                                    pkg: p5-Email-MIME
                                    rpm: perl-Email-MIME
@@ -124,6 +119,12 @@ - DBI                              deb: libdbi-perl
                                    pkg: p5-DBI
                                    rpm: perl-DBI
                                    (pulled in by DBD::SQLite)
+
+* Devel::Peek                      deb: libperl5.$MINOR (e.g. libperl5.24)
+                                   pkg: perl5
+                                   rpm: perl-Devel-Peek
+                                   (optional for stale FD cleanup in daemons,
+                                    typically installed alongside Perl5)
 
 - Filesys::Notify::Simple          deb: libfilesys-notify-simple-perl
                                    pkg: pkg-Filesys-Notify-Simple
diff --git a/Makefile.PL b/Makefile.PL
index 6be913b168f58cf4dd7a86bb67ab1dcb5cf5f74d..de0c49fd8e2c5660c08f913cadd1371e4b7e7116 100644
--- a/Makefile.PL
+++ b/Makefile.PL
@@ -38,10 +38,6 @@ 		# libperl$PERL_VERSION or libencode-perl on Debian,
 		# `perl5' on FreeBSD
 		'Encode' => 0,
 
-		# libperl$PERL_VERSION on Debian, `perl5' on FreeBSD,
-		# but Fedora seems to need this separately
-		'Devel::Peek' => 0,
-
 		# TODO: these should really be made optional...
 		'Plack' => 0,
 		'URI::Escape' => 0,
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Daemon.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Daemon.pm
index 68ba987636524e8bba58e4c5e1535f2f4de32e55..227ba5f979d09ef23eebaf892284b27137222165 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Daemon.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Daemon.pm
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ use Time::HiRes qw(clock_gettime CLOCK_MONOTONIC);
 STDOUT->autoflush(1);
 STDERR->autoflush(1);
 require PublicInbox::DS;
+require PublicInbox::EvCleanup;
 require POSIX;
 require PublicInbox::Listener;
 require PublicInbox::ParentPipe;
@@ -463,6 +464,7 @@ }
 
 sub daemon_loop ($$) {
 	my ($refresh, $post_accept) = @_;
+	PublicInbox::EvCleanup::enable(); # early for $refresh
 	my $parent_pipe;
 	if ($worker_processes > 0) {
 		$refresh->(); # preload by default
@@ -485,7 +487,6 @@ 	# this calls epoll_create:
 	@listeners = map {
 		PublicInbox::Listener->new($_, $post_accept)
 	} @listeners;
-	PublicInbox::EvCleanup::enable();
 	PublicInbox::DS->EventLoop;
 	$parent_pipe = undef;
 }
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/HTTP.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/HTTP.pm
index 11bd241e91a1661d316a7f3d037f047b938762df..10e6d6a43b518115c7eece8a5f11e67ebe613fb2 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/HTTP.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/HTTP.pm
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ use Plack::HTTPParser qw(parse_http_request); # XS or pure Perl
 use HTTP::Status qw(status_message);
 use HTTP::Date qw(time2str);
 use IO::Handle;
+require PublicInbox::EvCleanup;
 use constant {
 	CHUNK_START => -1,   # [a-f0-9]+\r\n
 	CHUNK_END => -2,     # \r\n
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
index 76aeefbdd0e4b4c2c0d1d0bdc4353fd3d2e54d08..0b118b28cea84418f18a73cd5f6a63cfbbe0dae9 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
@@ -7,25 +7,30 @@ use strict;
 use warnings;
 use PublicInbox::Git;
 use PublicInbox::MID qw(mid2path);
-use Devel::Peek qw(SvREFCNT);
 use PublicInbox::MIME;
 
+# Long-running "git-cat-file --batch" processes won't notice
+# unlinked packs, so we need to restart those processes occasionally.
+# Xapian and SQLite file handles are mostly stable, but sometimes an
+# admin will attempt to replace them atomically after compact/vacuum
+# and we need to be prepared for that.
 my $cleanup_timer;
-eval {
-	$cleanup_timer = 'disabled';
-	require PublicInbox::EvCleanup;
-	$cleanup_timer = undef; # OK if we get here
-};
-my $cleanup_broken = $@;
-
+my $cleanup_avail = -1; # 0, or 1
+my $have_devel_peek;
 my $CLEANUP = {}; # string(inbox) -> inbox
 sub cleanup_task () {
 	$cleanup_timer = undef;
 	my $next = {};
 	for my $ibx (values %$CLEANUP) {
 		my $again;
-		foreach my $f (qw(mm search)) {
-			delete $ibx->{$f} if SvREFCNT($ibx->{$f}) == 1;
+		if ($have_devel_peek) {
+			foreach my $f (qw(mm search)) {
+				# we bump refcnt by assigning tmp, here:
+				my $tmp = $ibx->{$f} or next;
+				next if Devel::Peek::SvREFCNT($tmp) > 2;
+				delete $ibx->{$f};
+				# refcnt is zero when tmp is out-of-scope
+			}
 		}
 		my $expire = time - 60;
 		if (my $git = $ibx->{git}) {
@@ -36,16 +41,30 @@ 			foreach my $git (@$gits) {
 				$again = 1 if $git->cleanup($expire);
 			}
 		}
-		$again ||= !!($ibx->{mm} || $ibx->{search});
+		if ($have_devel_peek) {
+			$again ||= !!($ibx->{mm} || $ibx->{search});
+		}
 		$next->{"$ibx"} = $ibx if $again;
 	}
 	$CLEANUP = $next;
 }
 
+sub cleanup_possible () {
+	# no need to require EvCleanup, here, if it were enabled another
+	# module would've require'd it, already
+	eval { PublicInbox::EvCleanup::enabled() } or return 0;
+
+	eval {
+		require Devel::Peek; # needs separate package in Fedora
+		$have_devel_peek = 1;
+	};
+	1;
+}
+
 sub _cleanup_later ($) {
 	my ($self) = @_;
-	return if $cleanup_broken;
-	return unless PublicInbox::EvCleanup::enabled();
+	$cleanup_avail = cleanup_possible() if $cleanup_avail < 0;
+	return if $cleanup_avail != 1;
 	$cleanup_timer ||= PublicInbox::EvCleanup::later(*cleanup_task);
 	$CLEANUP->{"$self"} = $self;
 }
diff --git a/t/config_limiter.t b/t/config_limiter.t
index 85a71257b7544d33e1e138b82e0689c92782f11f..b18951a61a2f5c8f4f664fd7f80078b44fb8a26e 100644
--- a/t/config_limiter.t
+++ b/t/config_limiter.t
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@ 	my $lim = $git->{-httpbackend_limiter};
 	ok($lim, 'Limiter exists');
 	is($lim->{max}, 3, 'limiter has expected slots');
 	$ibx->{git} = undef;
-	PublicInbox::Inbox::cleanup_task;
 	my $new = $ibx->git;
 	isnt($old, "$new", 'got new Git object');
 	is("$new->{-httpbackend_limiter}", "$lim", 'same limiter');