lib/PublicInbox/LeiP2q.pm | 7 +++++--
 t/lei-p2q.t               | 4 +++-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiP2q.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiP2q.pm
index a8a3dd2ccfa7d0bcae67ba7d9b3ec4a66b122ab0..cb2309c7adc9a1389d84285337221d83372ed8f6 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiP2q.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiP2q.pm
@@ -105,6 +105,7 @@ 		$_ = [ $pfx, $n ];
 	}
 	my $smsg = bless {}, 'PublicInbox::Smsg';
 	my $in = $self->{0};
+	my @cmd;
 	unless ($in) {
 		my $input = $self->{input};
 		my $devfd = $lei->path_to_fd($input) // return;
@@ -114,11 +115,13 @@ 		} elsif (-e $input) {
 			open($in, '<', $input) or
 				return $lei->fail("open < $input: $!");
 		} else {
-			my @cmd = (qw(git format-patch --stdout -1), $input);
+			@cmd = (qw(git format-patch --stdout -1), $input);
 			$in = popen_rd(\@cmd, undef, { 2 => $lei->{2} });
 		}
 	};
-	my $eml = PublicInbox::Eml->new(\(do { local $/; <$in> }));
+	my $str = do { local $/; <$in> };
+	@cmd && !close($in) and return $lei->fail("E: @cmd failed: $?");
+	my $eml = PublicInbox::Eml->new(\$str);
 	$lei->{diff_want} = +{ map { $_ => 1 } @want };
 	$smsg->populate($eml);
 	while (my ($pfx, $fields) = each %pfx2smsg) {
diff --git a/t/lei-p2q.t b/t/lei-p2q.t
index 87cf9fa7d6d9fcad15097037f5cf8610e72a8f3f..be2d437c709d6e67f962eed7fb8c14dbc11eee12 100644
--- a/t/lei-p2q.t
+++ b/t/lei-p2q.t
@@ -6,9 +6,11 @@ require_git 2.6;
 require_mods(qw(json DBD::SQLite Search::Xapian));
 
 test_lei(sub {
+	ok(!lei(qw(p2q this-better-cause-format-patch-to-fail)),
+		'p2q fails on bogus arg');
 	lei_ok(qw(p2q -w dfpost t/data/0001.patch));
 	is($lei_out, "dfpost:6e006fd73b1d\n", 'pathname');
-	open my $fh, '+<', 't/data/0001.patch';
+	open my $fh, '+<', 't/data/0001.patch' or xbail "open: $!";
 	lei_ok([qw(p2q -w dfpost -)], undef, { %$lei_opt, 0 => $fh });
 	is($lei_out, "dfpost:6e006fd73b1d\n", '--stdin');