diff --git a/mm3-hk-export b/mm3-hk-export
index f2ae452..5177ecc 100755
--- a/mm3-hk-export
+++ b/mm3-hk-export
@@ -115,7 +115,9 @@ for chunk in iter(lambda: raw.read(1 << 16), b""):
 raw.close()
 print("MM3HK|FILE|%d|%s|%s" % (n, path, h.hexdigest()))
 EOF
-)
+) || { echo "mm3-hk-export: mailman-web shell failed; aborting, nothing exported" >&2; exit 1; }
+# Any non-zero from mailman-web is normalized to exit 1 above so a wrapper that
+# happens to exit 3 can never be misread as our reserved "nothing archived" code.
 
 line=$(printf '%s\n' "$result" | grep '^MM3HK|' | tail -n1 || true)
 if [ -z "$line" ]; then
@@ -153,31 +155,53 @@ case "$status" in
     FILE)
         path=$(printf '%s' "$line" | cut -d'|' -f4)
         sha=$(printf '%s' "$line" | cut -d'|' -f5)
-        mkdir -p "$(dirname "$out")"
         # Publish the web-user temp file as root without re-resolving its path.
         # The export lives in /var/tmp owned by the web user, so any process
         # with that uid could swap the name for a symlink between a name-based
         # check and a name-based copy (TOCTOU) and make root copy an arbitrary
-        # root-readable file. So: open the source ONCE with O_NOFOLLOW (a swapped
-        # symlink makes the open fail outright), confirm it's a regular file via
+        # root-readable file. So: open the source once with O_NOFOLLOW (a swapped
+        # symlink makes the open fail) plus O_NONBLOCK (a swapped FIFO returns
+        # instead of blocking the open forever), confirm it's a regular file via
         # the open fd, copy from that fd into a fresh root-owned temp in the
         # destination dir while hashing, verify the SHA-256 matches what the
         # exporter reported (rejects a regular-file swap, truncation, or partial
         # write by another same-uid process), fsync, and atomically rename into
-        # place. Paths + digest are passed as argv (heredoc is single-quoted) so
-        # nothing is interpolated.
+        # place. The output directory is created in-process so each newly-made
+        # level is fsynced into its parent before success is reported. Paths and
+        # digest are passed as argv (heredoc is single-quoted) so nothing is
+        # interpolated.
         if ! python3 - "$path" "$out" "$sha" <<'PY'
 import os, sys, stat, tempfile, hashlib
 src, out, expected = sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2], sys.argv[3]
+dest_dir = os.path.dirname(out) or "."
+
+def fsync_dir(d):
+    dfd = os.open(d, os.O_RDONLY | os.O_DIRECTORY)
+    try: os.fsync(dfd)
+    finally: os.close(dfd)
+
+# Create any missing output directories, fsyncing each new level into its parent
+# so a freshly-created backup directory is itself crash-durable, not just the
+# file later renamed into it.
+missing, d = [], os.path.abspath(dest_dir)
+while not os.path.isdir(d):
+    missing.append(d)
+    parent = os.path.dirname(d)
+    if parent == d: break
+    d = parent
+for made in reversed(missing):
+    os.mkdir(made)
+    fsync_dir(os.path.dirname(made))
+
 try:
-    fd = os.open(src, os.O_RDONLY | os.O_NOFOLLOW)
+    fd = os.open(src, os.O_RDONLY | os.O_NOFOLLOW | os.O_NONBLOCK)
 except OSError as e:
-    sys.exit("mm3-hk-export: cannot open export temp (symlink swapped in?): %s" % e)
+    sys.exit("mm3-hk-export: cannot open export temp (symlink/FIFO swapped in?): %s" % e)
 dtmp = None
 try:
     if not stat.S_ISREG(os.fstat(fd).st_mode):
         sys.exit("mm3-hk-export: export temp is not a regular file")
-    dfd, dtmp = tempfile.mkstemp(prefix=".mm3hk.", dir=os.path.dirname(out) or ".")
+    dfd, dtmp = tempfile.mkstemp(prefix=".mm3hk.", dir=dest_dir)
     h = hashlib.sha256()
     r = os.fdopen(fd, "rb"); fd = -1      # fd now owned by r
     with r, os.fdopen(dfd, "wb") as w:    # dfd now owned by w
@@ -194,11 +218,7 @@ try:
     # fsync the containing directory so the new directory entry is crash-durable
     # before we report success: a caller that then destroys the list must not be
     # able to lose the backup to a crash that drops the unsynced rename.
-    dirfd = os.open(os.path.dirname(out) or ".", os.O_RDONLY | os.O_DIRECTORY)
-    try:
-        os.fsync(dirfd)
-    finally:
-        os.close(dirfd)
+    fsync_dir(dest_dir)
 except BaseException:
     if dtmp is not None:
         try: os.unlink(dtmp)