lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm     |  4 ++--
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiBlob.pm | 23 +++++++++++++----------
 t/solver_git.t             |  3 +++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
index fdb0bbcf2fe1ffb1afb73ebea5abfae4b3a2a0d9..bad7fad94f1b195d896741be8cd4e74362bcb92a 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
@@ -136,8 +136,8 @@ 	sort|s=s reverse|r offset=i pretty jobs|j=s globoff|g augment|a
 	import-before! lock=s@ rsyncable alert=s@ mua=s verbose|v+), @c_opt,
 	opt_dash('limit|n=i', '[0-9]+') ],
 
-'blob' => [ 'OID', 'display a git blob object, solving if necessary',
-	qw(git-dir=s@ cwd! verbose|v+ oid-a|A=s path-a|a=s path-b|b=s),
+'blob' => [ 'OID', 'show a git blob, reconstructing from mail if necessary',
+	qw(git-dir=s@ cwd! verbose|v+ mail! oid-a|A=s path-a|a=s path-b|b=s),
 	@lxs_opt, @c_opt ],
 
 'add-external' => [ 'LOCATION',
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiBlob.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiBlob.pm
index 9b4c4f30c7160fb95ef7c050396f3ca666c4ba79..4bd8625347396857dcf5d97faa82a9b06f6728fd 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiBlob.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiBlob.pm
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ use v5.10.1;
 use parent qw(PublicInbox::IPC);
 use PublicInbox::Spawn qw(spawn popen_rd);
 use PublicInbox::DS;
-use PublicInbox::Eml;
 
 sub sol_done_wait { # dwaitpid callback
 	my ($arg, $pid) = @_;
@@ -85,18 +84,22 @@
 sub lei_blob {
 	my ($lei, $blob) = @_;
 	$lei->start_pager if -t $lei->{1};
+	my $opt = $lei->{opt};
+	my $has_hints = grep(defined, @$opt{qw(oid-a path-a path-b)});
 
-	# first, see if it's a blob returned by "lei q" JSON output:
-	my $rdr = { 1 => $lei->{1} };
-	open $rdr->{2}, '>', '/dev/null' or die "open: $!";
-	my $cmd = [ 'git', '--git-dir='.$lei->ale->git->{git_dir},
-			'cat-file', 'blob', $blob ];
-	waitpid(spawn($cmd, $lei->{env}, $rdr), 0);
-	return if $? == 0;
+	# first, see if it's a blob returned by "lei q" JSON output:k
+	if ($opt->{mail} // ($has_hints ? 0 : 1)) {
+		my $rdr = { 1 => $lei->{1} };
+		open $rdr->{2}, '>', '/dev/null' or die "open: $!";
+		my $cmd = [ 'git', '--git-dir='.$lei->ale->git->{git_dir},
+				'cat-file', 'blob', $blob ];
+		waitpid(spawn($cmd, $lei->{env}, $rdr), 0);
+		return if $? == 0;
+	}
 
 	# maybe it's a non-email (code) blob from a coderepo
-	my $git_dirs = $lei->{opt}->{'git-dir'} //= [];
-	if ($lei->{opt}->{'cwd'} //= 1) {
+	my $git_dirs = $opt->{'git-dir'} //= [];
+	if ($opt->{'cwd'} // 1) {
 		my $cgd = get_git_dir('.');
 		unshift(@$git_dirs, $cgd) if defined $cgd;
 	}
diff --git a/t/solver_git.t b/t/solver_git.t
index 22714ae574a10002bbc4e803fc6117543ffe6128..7bf3ba21d182c2d78cd54d17b28acc6d19504d47 100644
--- a/t/solver_git.t
+++ b/t/solver_git.t
@@ -34,6 +34,9 @@ test_lei({tmpdir => $tmpdir}, sub {
 	lei_ok('blob', '69df7d5', '-I', $ibx->{inboxdir});
 	is(sha1_hex("blob ".length($lei_out)."\0".$lei_out),
 		$expect, 'blob contents output');
+	my $prev = $lei_out;
+	lei_ok(qw(blob --no-mail 69df7d5 -I), $ibx->{inboxdir});
+	is($lei_out, $prev, '--no-mail works');
 
 	# fallbacks
 	lei_ok('blob', $v1_0_0_tag, '-I', $ibx->{inboxdir});