lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm       |  2 +-
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm  |  2 +-
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm |  8 ++++++--
 t/lei-q-kw.t                 | 25 +++++++++++++++++++------

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
index 50276a505abbce64a4b1d2cff009d799c9aedead..50c0a885ec0d6a6cf332f727246dbba99f243102 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
@@ -431,7 +431,7 @@ sub out ($;@) {
 	my $self = shift;
 	return if print { $self->{1} // return } @_; # likely
 	return note_sigpipe($self, 1) if $! == EPIPE;
-	my $err = "error writing to stdout: $!";
+	my $err = "error writing to output: $!";
 	delete $self->{1};
 	fail($self, $err);
 }
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
index 493a83825d2c4e64a1f350ad6ea329b3fc32fb1d..623b92cdb78c3893de9c9cfcc7475261a5a160e0 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ 	# we'll allow "--only $LOCATION --local"
 	my $sto = $self->_lei_store(1);
 	my $lse = $sto->search;
 	if (($opt->{'import-remote'} //= 1) |
-			($opt->{'import-before'} //= 1)) {
+			(($opt->{'import-before'} //= \1) ? 1 : 0)) {
 		$sto->write_prepare($self);
 	}
 	if ($opt->{'local'} //= scalar(@only) ? 0 : 1) {
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm
index 1e2060fe973d129f0ddffec6db17f1fac68e4ce5..13b4f67275b696cb1b84148f00b60bebf25562d3 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm
@@ -223,8 +223,6 @@ 	my $dup = bless { "pid.$pid" => $cmd }, ref($lei);
 	$dup->{$_} = $lei->{$_} for qw(2 sock);
 	tie *$pp, 'PublicInbox::ProcessPipe', $pid, $w, \&reap_compress, $dup;
 	$lei->{1} = $pp;
-	die 'BUG: unexpected {ovv}->{lock_path}' if $lei->{ovv}->{lock_path};
-	$lei->{ovv}->ovv_out_lk_init;
 }
 
 sub decompress_src ($$$) {
@@ -495,6 +493,7 @@ 	my $dst = $lei->{ovv}->{dst};
 	my $out = $lei->{1};
 	if ($dst ne '/dev/stdout') {
 		if (-p $dst) {
+			$out = undef;
 			open $out, '>', $dst or die "open($dst): $!";
 		} elsif (-f _ || !-e _) {
 			require PublicInbox::MboxLock;
@@ -521,6 +520,11 @@ 	state $zsfx_allow = join('|', keys %zsfx2cmd);
 	if (($self->{zsfx}) = ($dst =~ /\.($zsfx_allow)\z/)) {
 		pipe(my ($r, $w)) or die "pipe: $!";
 		$lei->{zpipe} = [ $r, $w ];
+		$lei->{ovv}->{lock_path} and
+			die 'BUG: unexpected {ovv}->{lock_path}';
+		$lei->{ovv}->ovv_out_lk_init;
+	} elsif (!$self->{seekable} && !$lei->{ovv}->{lock_path}) {
+		$lei->{ovv}->ovv_out_lk_init;
 	}
 	$lei->{1} = $out;
 	undef;
diff --git a/t/lei-q-kw.t b/t/lei-q-kw.t
index 9daeb5b1976a40c8fb97c1771c247e20ba3f0259..917a2c53dc76d46662fbc7c164615e1559256574 100644
--- a/t/lei-q-kw.t
+++ b/t/lei-q-kw.t
@@ -7,7 +7,15 @@ use Fcntl qw(SEEK_SET O_RDONLY O_NONBLOCK);
 use IO::Uncompress::Gunzip qw(gunzip);
 use IO::Compress::Gzip qw(gzip);
 use PublicInbox::MboxReader;
+use PublicInbox::LeiToMail;
 use PublicInbox::Spawn qw(popen_rd);
+my $exp = {
+	'<qp@example.com>' => eml_load('t/plack-qp.eml'),
+	'<testmessage@example.com>' => eml_load('t/utf8.eml'),
+};
+$exp->{'<qp@example.com>'}->header_set('Status', 'OR');
+$exp->{'<testmessage@example.com>'}->header_set('Status', 'O');
+
 test_lei(sub {
 lei_ok(qw(import -F eml t/plack-qp.eml));
 my $o = "$ENV{HOME}/dst";
@@ -42,6 +50,17 @@ 	my $cat = popen_rd(['cat', $o]);
 	ok(!lei(qw(q --import-before bogus -o), "mboxrd:$o"),
 		'--import-before fails on non-seekable output');
 	is(do { local $/; <$cat> }, '', 'no output on FIFO');
+	close $cat;
+	$cat = popen_rd(['cat', $o]);
+	lei_ok(qw(q m:qp@example.com -o), "mboxrd:$o");
+	my $buf = do { local $/; <$cat> };
+	open my $fh, '<', \$buf or BAIL_OUT $!;
+	PublicInbox::MboxReader->mboxrd($fh, sub {
+		my ($eml) = @_;
+		$eml->header_set('Status', 'OR');
+		is_deeply($eml, $exp->{'<qp@example.com>'},
+			'FIFO output works as expected');
+	});
 };
 
 lei_ok qw(import -F eml t/utf8.eml), \'for augment test';
@@ -66,12 +85,6 @@ 		close $fh or BAIL_OUT;
 	}
 };
 
-my $exp = {
-	'<qp@example.com>' => eml_load('t/plack-qp.eml'),
-	'<testmessage@example.com>' => eml_load('t/utf8.eml'),
-};
-$exp->{'<qp@example.com>'}->header_set('Status', 'OR');
-$exp->{'<testmessage@example.com>'}->header_set('Status', 'O');
 for my $sfx ('', '.gz') {
 	$o = "$ENV{HOME}/dst.mboxrd$sfx";
 	lei_ok(qw(q -o), "mboxrd:$o", qw(m:qp@example.com));