lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm | 11 ++++++++---
 t/lei-mirror.t               | 18 ++++++++++++++++++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm
index d68cd6c1615cea67c4577d76e60588a83d288eb4..c83386c61ff4717b9f90b63607818d859639a8e2 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm
@@ -12,8 +12,14 @@
 sub do_finish_mirror { # dwaitpid callback
 	my ($arg, $pid) = @_;
 	my ($mrr, $lei) = @$arg;
-	if ($? == 0 && unlink("$mrr->{dst}/mirror.done")) {
+	my $f = "$mrr->{dst}/mirror.done";
+	if ($?) {
+		$lei->child_error($?);
+	} elsif (!unlink($f)) {
+		$lei->err("unlink($f): $!");
+	} else {
 		$lei->add_external_finish($mrr->{dst});
+		$lei->qerr("# mirrored $mrr->{src} => $mrr->{dst}");
 	}
 	$lei->dclose;
 }
@@ -262,8 +268,7 @@ 		}
 		return start_clone_url($self) if $self->{src} =~ m!://!;
 		die "TODO: cloning local directories not supported, yet";
 	};
-	return $lei->fail($@) if $@;
-	$lei->qerr("# mirrored $self->{src} => $self->{dst}");
+	$lei->fail($@) if $@;
 }
 
 sub start {
diff --git a/t/lei-mirror.t b/t/lei-mirror.t
index 9769f31bdc3fe1efd8d2566fe5deefd0e5d9b163..6039e568224f3d51d65656035898f5d374724a48 100644
--- a/t/lei-mirror.t
+++ b/t/lei-mirror.t
@@ -41,6 +41,24 @@ 	ok(!lei('add-external', "$t2-fail", '-Lmedium'), '--mirror v2');
 	ok(!-d "$t2-fail", 'destination not created on failure');
 	lei_ok('ls-external');
 	unlike($lei_out, qr!\Q$t2-fail\E!, 'not added to ls-external');
+
+	my %phail = (
+		HTTPS => 'https://public-inbox.org/' . 'phail',
+		ONION => 'http://ou63pmih66umazou.onion/' . 'phail,'
+	);
+	for my $t (qw(HTTPS ONION)) {
+	SKIP: {
+		my $k = "TEST_LEI_EXTERNAL_$t";
+		$ENV{$k} or skip "$k unset", 1;
+		my $url = $phail{$t};
+		my $dir = "phail-$t";
+		ok(!lei(qw(add-external -Lmedium --mirror),
+			$url, $dir), '--mirror non-existent v2');
+		is($? >> 8, 22, 'curl 404');
+		ok(!-d $dir, 'directory not created');
+		unlike($lei_err, qr/# mirrored/, 'no success message');
+	} # SKIP
+	} # for
 });
 
 ok($td->kill, 'killed -httpd');