I'm not absolutely sure this is git's fault but I tried to use the reply mechanism described here: https://public-inbox.org/git/20220718232843.151392-1-britton.kerin@xxxxxxxxx/#R whic is to say this: git send-email \ --in-reply-to=20220718232843.151392-1-britton.kerin@xxxxxxxxx \ --to=britton.kerin@xxxxxxxxx \ --cc=git@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx \ --cc=gitster@xxxxxxxxx \ --cc=newren@xxxxxxxxx \ --subject='Re: BUG: git-check-ignore documentation doesn'\''t come close to describing what it really does' \ /path/to/YOUR_REPLY and it failed like this: $ git send-email --in-reply-to=xmqqtu7lc587.fsf@gitster.g --to=britton.kerin@xxxxxxxxx --subject='Re: BUG: git-check-ignore documentation doesn'\''t come close to describing what it really does' ~/my_reply_git_checkignore_bug_post /home/bkerin/my_reply_git_checkignore_bug_post No subject line in /home/bkerin/my_reply_git_checkignore_bug_post? at /usr/lib/git-core/git-send-email line 720. Until I added this line to the top of /home/bkerin/my_reply_git_checkignore_bug_post: Subject: Re: BUG: git-check-ignore documentation doesn't come close to describing what it really does maybe this is normal but it seems weird given the presence of --in-reply-to and --subject and the fact that I didn't need to copy any other headers in. Britton