1 files changed, 1 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
index ffbc2503..b0a8358a 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
@@ -737,8 +737,7 @@ sub lei__complete {
                  my $opt = quotemeta $1;
                  puts $self, map {
                          my $v = $OPTDESC{$_};
-                        $v = $v->[0] if ref($v);
-                        my @v = split(/\|/, $v);
+                        my @v = ref($v) ? split(/\|/, $v->[0]) : ();
                          # get rid of ALL CAPS placeholder (e.g "OUT")
                          # (TODO: completion for external paths)
                          shift(@v) if uc($v[0]) eq $v[0];