lib/PublicInbox/Config.pm    | 7 +++----
 lib/PublicInbox/InboxIdle.pm | 7 +------

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Config.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Config.pm
index cafd9c3bafe364eaaeedcb478cc9e23fd1a49dfc..199ce0193bbd00cda7389d1ca918e0857cbac4c5 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Config.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Config.pm
@@ -391,9 +391,9 @@ 			}
 		}
 	}
 
-	# backwards compatibility:
-	$ibx->{inboxdir} //= $self->{"$pfx.mainrepo"};
-	if (($ibx->{inboxdir} // '') =~ /\n/s) {
+	# "mainrepo" is backwards compatibility:
+	$ibx->{inboxdir} //= $self->{"$pfx.mainrepo"} // return;
+	if ($ibx->{inboxdir} =~ /\n/s) {
 		warn "E: `$ibx->{inboxdir}' must not contain `\\n'\n";
 		return;
 	}
@@ -415,7 +415,6 @@ 			$ibx->{$k} = _array($v);
 		}
 	}
 
-	return unless defined($ibx->{inboxdir});
 	my $name = $pfx;
 	$name =~ s/\Apublicinbox\.//;
 
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/InboxIdle.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/InboxIdle.pm
index 2737bbbd01fbde2583de42f97f3383098a428999..f1cbc012f2bc6bb3bfb6420082282e2ea919d97f 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/InboxIdle.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/InboxIdle.pm
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ # pathmap => { inboxdir => [ ibx, watch1, watch2, watch3... ] } mapping
 package PublicInbox::InboxIdle;
 use strict;
 use parent qw(PublicInbox::DS);
-use Cwd qw(abs_path);
 use PublicInbox::Syscall qw(EPOLLIN EPOLLET);
 my $IN_MODIFY = 0x02; # match Linux inotify
 my $ino_cls;
@@ -22,11 +21,7 @@ require PublicInbox::In2Tie if $ino_cls;
 
 sub in2_arm ($$) { # PublicInbox::Config::each_inbox callback
 	my ($ibx, $self) = @_;
-	my $dir = abs_path($ibx->{inboxdir});
-	if (!defined($dir)) {
-		warn "W: $ibx->{inboxdir} not watched: $!\n";
-		return;
-	}
+	my $dir = $ibx->{inboxdir};
 	my $inot = $self->{inot};
 	my $cur = $self->{pathmap}->{$dir} //= [];