git bugreport

Dumps environment, version, config — for filing bugs upstream.

🎯 What & why

git bugreport produces a pre-filled bug report — Git version, build details, OS, key config, and (optionally) repo diagnostics — so you stop wasting maintainers' time guessing your environment.

🧠 Mental model

A git --version on steroids that writes a Markdown-ish file ready to paste into the Git mailing list or an issue tracker. Pure data dump, no upload, no telemetry.

🛠️ Synopsis

git bugreport [-o | --output-directory <path>]
              [-s | --suffix <format> | --no-suffix]
              [--diagnose[=<mode>]]

🎚️ Switches & options

Flag	What it does
`-o <dir>` / `--output-directory <dir>`	Where to write the report. Defaults to the current directory.
`-s <fmt>` / `--suffix <fmt>`	strftime-style suffix for the filename (default `%Y-%m-%d-%H%M`).
`--no-suffix`	Omit the suffix entirely — file becomes `git-bugreport.txt`.
`--diagnose[=stats\|all]`	Also produce a zip archive with repo diagnostics. `stats` = sizes/object counts; `all` = adds loose-ref listings and packed-refs. !`all` may include sensitive ref names.

💡 Use cases

Filing a reproducible bug on the Git mailing list or tracker.
Capturing environment context for an internal Git platform team.
Comparing two machines when a Git command misbehaves on only one.
Bundling repo health info (--diagnose=stats) for a perf complaint.

🧪 Examples

Default report in CWD

git bugreport

Write into ~/reports

git bugreport -o ~/reports

Stable filename, no timestamp

git bugreport --no-suffix -o /tmp

With repo diagnostics zip

git bugreport --diagnose=stats -o /tmp

🎓 Recommendations

Run git bugreport --diagnose=stats before pinging maintainers about slowness — saves a round trip.
Prefer the newer git diagnose when you only want the zip and not the prose template.
Skim the generated file before sending — strip anything sensitive (paths, branch names).

🪤 Common pitfalls

--diagnose=all includes every ref name — fine for OSS, leaky on private repos.
The output is a template — it doesn't actually file the bug for you. You still need to send it somewhere.
On very old Git (< 2.27) the command doesn't exist; check version first if you script around it.

🔗 Related modules

📝 Quiz

Hit each option, then Check answers. Score is recorded; Next is always open.