lib/PublicInbox/LeiSavedSearch.pm | 6 ++++--
 t/lei-q-save.t                    | 4 ++++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiSavedSearch.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiSavedSearch.pm
index 0f632d9378aacfb2b8625b66185fce131d6d44d4..e44779eea1ae9aaf3f6379acdacd837a66719da6 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiSavedSearch.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiSavedSearch.pm
@@ -24,9 +24,10 @@ 		my $uri = PublicInbox::URIimap->new($$dstref)->canonical;
 		$$dstref = $$uri;
 		@n = ($uri->mailbox);
 	} else { # basename
-		@n = ($$dstref =~ m{([\w\-\.]+)/*\z});
 		$$dstref = $lei->rel2abs($$dstref);
 		$$dstref .= '/' if -d $$dstref;
+		$$dstref =~ tr!/!/!s;
+		@n = ($$dstref =~ m{([^/]+)/*\z});
 	}
 	push @n, sha256_hex($$dstref);
 	$lei->share_path . '/saved-searches/' . join('-', @n);
@@ -40,7 +41,8 @@ 	if (defined $dst) { # updating existing saved search via "lei up"
 		my $f;
 		$dir = $dst;
 		output2lssdir($self, $lei, \$dir, \$f) or
-			return $lei->fail("--save was not used with $dst");
+			return $lei->fail("--save was not used with $dst cwd=".
+						$lei->rel2abs('.'));
 		$self->{-cfg} //= PublicInbox::Config::git_config_dump($f);
 		$self->{'-f'} = $f;
 	} else { # new saved search "lei q --save"
diff --git a/t/lei-q-save.t b/t/lei-q-save.t
index 6389825f46d260e353769d0c266739638bf6bb22..a8eda41ebc0479a525a0fc3db585c1f7b7c8bb1a 100644
--- a/t/lei-q-save.t
+++ b/t/lei-q-save.t
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ 	$in = $doc2->as_string;
 	lei_ok [qw(import -q -F eml -)], undef, { 0 => \$in, %$lei_opt };
 	opendir my $dh, '.' or xbail "opendir .: $!";
 	lei_ok qw(up -q md -C), $home;
+	lei_ok qw(up -q . -C), "$home/md";
+	lei_ok qw(up -q), "/$home/md";
 	chdir($dh) or xbail "fchdir . $!";
 	my %after = map { $_ => 1 } glob("$home/md/cur/*");
 	is(delete $after{(keys(%before))[0]}, 1, 'original message kept');
@@ -51,5 +53,7 @@ 	$in = $doc3->as_string;
 	lei_ok [qw(import -q -F eml -)], undef, { 0 => \$in, %$lei_opt };
 	lei_ok([qw(up mbcl2)], undef, { -C => $home, %$lei_opt });
 	ok(-s "$home/mbcl2" > $size, 'size increased after up');
+
+	ok(!lei(qw(up -q), $home), 'up fails w/o --save');
 });
 done_testing;