diff --git a/cmd/godoc/main.go b/cmd/godoc/main.go
index 5d633877..65843dd4 100644
--- a/cmd/godoc/main.go
+++ b/cmd/godoc/main.go
@@ -241,8 +241,10 @@ func main() {
 	if *writeIndex {
 		corpus.IndexThrottle = 1.0
 		corpus.IndexEnabled = true
+		initCorpus(corpus)
+	} else {
+		go initCorpus(corpus)
 	}
-	go initCorpus(corpus)
 
 	// Initialize the version info before readTemplates, which saves
 	// the map value in a method value.