diff --git a/packages/queue/tests/commit.test.mjs b/packages/queue/tests/commit.test.mjs
index c254dce5..b101cebc 100644
--- a/packages/queue/tests/commit.test.mjs
+++ b/packages/queue/tests/commit.test.mjs
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ async function pausedCommit(t, form) {
   const go = join(r.ctl, "editor-go");
   const editor = join(r.ctl, "editor.sh");
   writeFileSync(editor, `#!/bin/sh\n: > ${q(started)}\nwhile [ ! -e ${q(go)} ]; do sleep 0.05; done\necho "ordinary" > "$1"\n`, { mode: 0o755 });
-  const child = spawn("git", ["-C", r.root, "commit", "-e", "-q", ...form], { env: { ...r.env, GIT_EDITOR: editor }, stdio: ["ignore", "pipe", "pipe"] });
+  const child = spawn("sh", ["-c", 'git "$@" 2>"$0"; s=$?; (sleep 0.5; cat "$0" >&2) & exit $s', join(r.ctl, "git-err"), "-C", r.root, "commit", "-e", "-q", ...form], { env: { ...r.env, GIT_EDITOR: editor }, stdio: ["ignore", "pipe", "pipe"] });
   let childErr = "";
   child.stderr.on("data", (d) => { childErr += d; });
   const exited = new Promise((resolve) => child.on("exit", resolve));