lib/PublicInbox/SpawnPP.pm | 2 +-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/SpawnPP.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/SpawnPP.pm
index 1a402e4222d0d30f30aae11414ec2a2e939eca06..288625d00a9279305bea4e7de7f69fe8f493fa14 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/SpawnPP.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/SpawnPP.pm
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ 			my ($k, $v) = split('=', $e, 2);
 			$ENV{$k} = $v;
 		}
 		exec @$cmd;
-		exit 1;
+		die "exec $cmd->[0] failed: $!\n";
 	}
 	$pid;
 }