lib/PublicInbox/AdminEdit.pm | 17 +++++++++++++++++
 script/public-inbox-edit     |  9 ++-------
 script/public-inbox-purge    |  7 +------
 t/purge.t                    |  4 ++--

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/AdminEdit.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/AdminEdit.pm
index b27c831b3ee30363795be25525dd5387d7e9fa85..169feba0dba9dbe8f3aa3778f4635e9a973118c6 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/AdminEdit.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/AdminEdit.pm
@@ -47,4 +47,21 @@ 		}
 	}
 }
 
+# takes the output of V2Writable::purge and V2Writable::replace
+# $rewrites = [ array commits keyed by epoch ]
+sub show_rewrites ($$$) {
+	my ($fh, $ibx, $rewrites) = @_;
+	print $fh "$ibx->{mainrepo}:";
+	if (scalar @$rewrites) {
+		my $epoch = -1;
+		my @out = map {;
+			++$epoch;
+			"$epoch.git: ".(defined($_) ? $_ : '(unchanged)')
+		} @$rewrites;
+		print $fh join("\n\t", '', @out), "\n";
+	} else {
+		print $fh " NONE\n";
+	}
+}
+
 1;
diff --git a/script/public-inbox-edit b/script/public-inbox-edit
index ff0351a389cca4243a28a64971ba3b8533438da4..7a534cc2b094bc5f796a34aec32ce76dbda0a48a 100755
--- a/script/public-inbox-edit
+++ b/script/public-inbox-edit
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ 		warn "No change detected to:\n", show_cmd($ibx, $smsg);
 
 		next unless $opt->{verbose};
 		# should we consider this machine-parseable?
-		print "$ibx->{mainrepo}:\n\tNONE\n";
+		PublicInbox::AdminEdit::show_rewrites(\*STDOUT, $ibx, []);
 		next;
 	}
 
@@ -223,11 +223,6 @@ 			next;
 		}
 		next unless $opt->{verbose};
 		# should we consider this machine-parseable?
-		print "$ibx->{mainrepo}:";
-		if (scalar @$commits) {
-			print join("\n\t", '', @$commits), "\n";
-		} else {
-			print "\tNONE\n";
-		}
+		PublicInbox::AdminEdit::show_rewrites(\*STDOUT, $ibx, $commits);
 	}
 }
diff --git a/script/public-inbox-purge b/script/public-inbox-purge
index 846557cab47b6d1c235222fbc0bf345c93e69269..0705d170eae8806f706c75e246cd7594b2b20f20 100755
--- a/script/public-inbox-purge
+++ b/script/public-inbox-purge
@@ -45,12 +45,7 @@
 	$v2w->done;
 
 	if ($opt->{verbose}) { # should we consider this machine-parseable?
-		print "$ibx->{mainrepo}:";
-		if (scalar @$commits) {
-			print join("\n\t", '', @$commits), "\n";
-		} else {
-			print " NONE\n";
-		}
+		PublicInbox::AdminEdit::show_rewrites(\*STDOUT, $ibx, $commits);
 	}
 	$n_purged += scalar @$commits;
 }
diff --git a/t/purge.t b/t/purge.t
index c1e0e9a023ab8e4b24d513ab7020591ac9ffa3a6..384f32a652bfce92eb917093cfbc5ba37002c9bc 100644
--- a/t/purge.t
+++ b/t/purge.t
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ is($? >> 8, 1, 'missed purge exits with 1');
 
 # a successful case:
 ok(IPC::Run::run([$purge, $mainrepo], \$raw, \$out, \$err), 'match OK');
-like($out, qr/^\t[a-f0-9]{40,}/m, 'removed commit noted');
+like($out, qr/\b[a-f0-9]{40,}/m, 'removed commit noted');
 
 # add (old) vger filter to config file
 print $cfg_fh <<EOF or die "print $!";
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ $out = $err = '';
 ok(chdir('/'), "chdir / OK for --all test");
 ok(IPC::Run::run([$purge, '--all'], \$pre_scrub, \$out, \$err),
 	'scrub purge OK');
-like($out, qr/^\t[a-f0-9]{40,}/m, 'removed commit noted');
+like($out, qr/\b[a-f0-9]{40,}/m, 'removed commit noted');
 # diag "out: $out"; diag "err: $err";
 
 $out = $err = '';