lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm         |  1 -
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiConvert.pm  |  3 ++-
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiExternal.pm |  3 ++-
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiImport.pm   | 20 +++++++-------------
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiMark.pm     |  2 +-
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm   |  2 +-
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiP2q.pm      |  5 +++--
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm    |  2 +-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
index d3ac19b2bb7b71b92eec74e78a27b82368f2d6a0..8cbaac015d4caee8d96d4d65bdf91b300fe23b4c 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
@@ -462,7 +462,6 @@ 	} else { # worker, Net::NNTP (Net::Cmd) uses STDERR directly
 		open STDERR, '+>&='.fileno($self->{2}) or warn "open $!";
 		delete $self->{0};
 	}
-	delete @$self{qw(cnv mark imp)};
 	for (delete @$self{qw(3 old_1 au_done)}) {
 		close($_) if defined($_);
 	}
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiConvert.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiConvert.pm
index bc86fe25f249f8a51868bf5a5acb5cb6b4f411ef..0cc65108c3e3e560f6839369ae5c05f85067b4ba 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiConvert.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiConvert.pm
@@ -46,13 +46,14 @@ sub lei_convert { # the main "lei convert" method
 	my ($lei, @inputs) = @_;
 	$lei->{opt}->{kw} //= 1;
 	$lei->{opt}->{dedupe} //= 'none';
-	my $self = $lei->{cnv} = bless {}, __PACKAGE__;
+	my $self = bless {}, __PACKAGE__;
 	my $ovv = PublicInbox::LeiOverview->new($lei, 'out-format');
 	$lei->{l2m} or return
 		$lei->fail("output not specified or is not a mail destination");
 	$lei->{opt}->{augment} = 1 unless $ovv->{dst} eq '/dev/stdout';
 	$self->prepare_inputs($lei, \@inputs) or return;
 	my $op = $lei->workers_start($self, 'lei_convert', 1);
+	$lei->{cnv} = $self;
 	$self->wq_io_do('do_convert', []);
 	$self->wq_close(1);
 	while ($op && $op->{sock}) { $op->event_step }
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiExternal.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiExternal.pm
index 9a555831532b9336c69b2aaa507caa2919e58250..56d6ef395ea07da5c550e808548374f47aeca80e 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiExternal.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiExternal.pm
@@ -144,7 +144,8 @@ }
 
 sub lei_add_external {
 	my ($self, $location) = @_;
-	$self->_lei_store(1)->write_prepare($self);
+	my $sto = $self->_lei_store(1);
+	$sto->write_prepare($self);
 	my $opt = $self->{opt};
 	my $mirror = $opt->{mirror} // do {
 		my @fail;
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiImport.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiImport.pm
index 991c84f20b4b0fc09fdc798086a58ad4c84a7a29..9da6b7f939dd62b49830020878312958fc2f70ff 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiImport.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiImport.pm
@@ -58,9 +58,13 @@ 	}
 	$self->wq_close(1);
 }
 
-sub import_start {
-	my ($lei) = @_;
-	my $self = $lei->{imp};
+sub lei_import { # the main "lei import" method
+	my ($lei, @inputs) = @_;
+	my $sto = $lei->_lei_store(1);
+	$sto->write_prepare($lei);
+	my $self = bless {}, __PACKAGE__;
+	$self->{-import_kw} = $lei->{opt}->{kw} // 1;
+	$self->prepare_inputs($lei, \@inputs) or return;
 	$lei->ale; # initialize for workers to read
 	my $j = $lei->{opt}->{jobs} // scalar(@{$self->{inputs}}) || 1;
 	if (my $net = $lei->{net}) {
@@ -77,16 +81,6 @@ 	$lei->{imp} = $self;
 	$self->wq_io_do('input_stdin', []) if $self->{0};
 	net_merge_complete($self) unless $lei->{auth};
 	while ($op && $op->{sock}) { $op->event_step }
-}
-
-sub lei_import { # the main "lei import" method
-	my ($lei, @inputs) = @_;
-	my $sto = $lei->_lei_store(1);
-	$sto->write_prepare($lei);
-	my $self = $lei->{imp} = bless {}, __PACKAGE__;
-	$self->{-import_kw} = $lei->{opt}->{kw} // 1;
-	$self->prepare_inputs($lei, \@inputs) or return;
-	import_start($lei);
 }
 
 no warnings 'once';
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMark.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMark.pm
index 3b5e6c2cd8ac3b63a3f890d7fbeba49f165a9c04..9d77f4b49d207c922b5b545e6c973b409f95d399 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMark.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMark.pm
@@ -105,8 +105,8 @@
 sub lei_mark { # the "lei mark" method
 	my ($lei, @argv) = @_;
 	my $sto = $lei->_lei_store(1);
-	my $self = $lei->{mark} = bless { missing => 0 }, __PACKAGE__;
 	$sto->write_prepare($lei);
+	my $self = bless { missing => 0 }, __PACKAGE__;
 	$lei->ale; # refresh and prepare
 	my $vmd_mod = vmd_mod_extract(\@argv);
 	return $lei->fail(join("\n", @{$vmd_mod->{err}})) if $vmd_mod->{err};
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm
index c916f2d007800048abe2707cca1274cb3c93b0ce..6e62625d73502d6eb881aae49ec28e86a3505193 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiMirror.pm
@@ -269,7 +269,6 @@
 sub start {
 	my ($cls, $lei, $src, $dst) = @_;
 	my $self = bless { lei => $lei, src => $src, dst => $dst }, $cls;
-	$lei->{mrr} = $self;
 	if ($src =~ m!https?://!) {
 		require URI;
 		require PublicInbox::LeiCurl;
@@ -281,6 +280,7 @@ 	require PublicInbox::InboxWritable;
 	my $op = $lei->workers_start($self, 'lei_mirror', 1, {
 		'' => [ \&mirror_done, $lei ]
 	});
+	$lei->{mrr} = $self;
 	$self->wq_io_do('do_mirror', []);
 	$self->wq_close(1);
 	while ($op && $op->{sock}) { $op->event_step }
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiP2q.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiP2q.pm
index 0f7ffb5f3daa8b93e9752999ec65fd67836ab0d9..fda055feab65177b55c6ab1fdb44af7655ae2fa6 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiP2q.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiP2q.pm
@@ -176,13 +176,14 @@ }
 
 sub lei_p2q { # the "lei patch-to-query" entry point
 	my ($lei, $input) = @_;
-	my $self = $lei->{p2q} = bless {}, __PACKAGE__;
+	my $self = bless {}, __PACKAGE__;
 	if ($lei->{opt}->{stdin}) {
 		$self->{0} = delete $lei->{0}; # guard from _lei_atfork_child
 	} else {
 		$self->{input} = $input;
 	}
-	my $op = $lei->workers_start($self, 'lei patch2query', 1);
+	my $op = $lei->workers_start($self, 'lei_p2q', 1);
+	$lei->{p2q} = $self;
 	$self->wq_io_do('do_p2q', []);
 	$self->wq_close(1);
 	while ($op && $op->{sock}) { $op->event_step }
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
index 148e8524d6d97b716885ba8e0eff59d693b14225..84996e7e2f4b4e3d8985917f224eb56a67824eff 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
@@ -50,11 +50,11 @@ 	my @only = @{$opt->{only} // []};
 	# --local is enabled by default unless --only is used
 	# 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) ? 1 : 0)) {
 		$sto->write_prepare($self);
 	}
+	my $lse = $sto->search;
 	if ($opt->{'local'} //= scalar(@only) ? 0 : 1) {
 		$lxs->prepare_external($lse);
 	}