lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm      | 2 +-
 lib/PublicInbox/Syscall.pm | 2 --

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm
index 268406628788931b56d71f31e5a8203c2ce963db..a6c43b22d960ae9c01765e126677f3521c44e115 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ }
 
 # caller sets return value to $Epoll
 sub _InitPoller () {
-	if (PublicInbox::Syscall::epoll_defined())  {
+	if (defined $PublicInbox::Syscall::SYS_epoll_create)  {
 		my $fd = epoll_create();
 		die "epoll_create: $!" if $fd < 0;
 		open($ep_io, '+<&=', $fd) or return;
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Syscall.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Syscall.pm
index ee4c61072214bd9143b0e1b3a7b5511cdbd13e30..bda9bbb049f3ed1a62030b8f563accef16572838 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Syscall.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Syscall.pm
@@ -285,8 +285,6 @@ ############################################################################
 # epoll functions
 ############################################################################
 
-sub epoll_defined { $SYS_epoll_create ? 1 : 0; }
-
 sub epoll_create {
 	syscall($SYS_epoll_create, $no_deprecated ? 0 : 100);
 }