lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm        | 11 +++++++++++
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm |  7 ++++++-
 script/lei                    |  8 +++++---

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
index c36456989449e31739945c3ca5b8b073ca09a6f8..e95a674b16f59c30d4a29713c4d8e50150dce120 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
@@ -746,6 +746,17 @@ 		syswrite($self->{au_done}, 'q' x ($self->{lxs}->{jobs} // 0));
 	}
 }
 
+sub poke_mua { # forces terminal MUAs to wake up and hopefully notice new mail
+	my ($self) = @_;
+	return unless $self->{opt}->{mua} && -t $self->{1};
+	# hit the process group that started the MUA
+	if (my $s = $self->{sock}) {
+		send($s, '-WINCH', MSG_EOR);
+	} elsif ($self->{oneshot}) {
+		kill('-WINCH', $$);
+	}
+}
+
 # caller needs to "-t $self->{1}" to check if tty
 sub start_pager {
 	my ($self) = @_;
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm
index 588df3a4b9db9934f1a7b075527bf0d40c1eff28..10485220a359976ebe6f88fad2ab3ce91c69eff0 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm
@@ -317,7 +317,12 @@
 			}
 			$lei->{1} = $out;
 		}
-		$l2m->lock_free ? $l2m->poke_dst : $lei->start_mua;
+		if ($l2m->lock_free) {
+			$l2m->poke_dst;
+			$lei->poke_mua;
+		} else { # mbox users
+			$lei->start_mua;
+		}
 	}
 	$lei->{-progress} and
 		$lei->err('# ', $lei->{-mset_total} // 0, " matches");
diff --git a/script/lei b/script/lei
index b7f21f1410fab4237054542cd2cdfbec72b0f8c1..0b0e2976435593d73dcd97a3cacce432679ddba6 100755
--- a/script/lei
+++ b/script/lei
@@ -105,13 +105,15 @@ 			last if $!{ECONNRESET};
 			die "recvmsg: $!";
 		}
 		last if $buf eq '';
-		if ($buf =~ /\Ax_it ([0-9]+)\z/) {
+		if ($buf =~ /\Aexec (.+)\z/) {
+			$exec_cmd->(\@fds, split(/\0/, $1));
+		} elsif ($buf eq '-WINCH') {
+			kill($buf, $$); # for MUA
+		} elsif ($buf =~ /\Ax_it ([0-9]+)\z/) {
 			$x_it_code = $1 + 0;
 			last;
 		} elsif ($buf =~ /\Achild_error ([0-9]+)\z/) {
 			$x_it_code = $1 + 0;
-		} elsif ($buf =~ /\Aexec (.+)\z/) {
-			$exec_cmd->(\@fds, split(/\0/, $1));
 		} else {
 			$sigchld->();
 			die $buf;