lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm | 6 ++----
 t/git.t                | 1 +

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm
index 084069259110d26e8b043822c0c22ecc4a8a81d7..73dc7d3e5d99feae413f92226cde9e4d77b29b3b 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm
@@ -362,10 +362,8 @@
 sub qx {
 	my ($self, @cmd) = @_;
 	my $fh = $self->popen(@cmd);
-	local $/ = "\n";
-	return <$fh> if wantarray;
-	local $/;
-	<$fh>
+	local $/ = wantarray ? "\n" : undef;
+	<$fh>;
 }
 
 # check_async and cat_async may trigger the other, so ensure they're
diff --git a/t/git.t b/t/git.t
index dfd7173a432c78dd9072a9530be7e1695b4ee20d..dcd053c569429efc5a91a86857ee932ee938da82 100644
--- a/t/git.t
+++ b/t/git.t
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ 	my $ref = $gcf->qx(qw(cat-file blob), $buf);
 	my @ref = $gcf->qx(qw(cat-file blob), $buf);
 	my $nl = scalar @ref;
 	ok($nl > 1, "qx returned array length of $nl");
+	is(join('', @ref), $ref, 'qx array and scalar context both work');
 
 	$gcf->qx(qw(repack -adq));
 	ok($gcf->packed_bytes > 0, 'packed size is positive');