lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm | 8 ++++++++
 t/git.t                | 8 ++++++++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm
index 0f92dd9a82f6e70bc5de58661fbfab0bce76bd47..c406c031bb9f648870d17471e573a74455f74b97 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Git.pm
@@ -117,6 +117,14 @@ 	@cmd = ('git', "--git-dir=$self->{git_dir}", @cmd);
 	popen_rd(\@cmd);
 }
 
+sub qx {
+	my ($self, @cmd) = @_;
+	my $fh = $self->popen(@cmd);
+	return <$fh> if wantarray;
+	local $/;
+	<$fh>
+}
+
 sub cleanup {
 	my ($self) = @_;
 	_destroy($self, qw(in out pid));
diff --git a/t/git.t b/t/git.t
index 0f3dbae3fec4ca768e2f93c147cd6e12e97dfd2c..d7b20d0deebf4567acd22d57a2c3521c1da3c249 100644
--- a/t/git.t
+++ b/t/git.t
@@ -129,6 +129,14 @@ 		open my $fh, '<', $big_data or die "open failed: $!\n";
 		local $/;
 		is($all, <$fh>, 'entire read matches');
 	};
+
+	my $ref = $gcf->qx(qw(cat-file blob), $buf);
+	is($all, $ref, 'qx read giant single string');
+
+	my @ref = $gcf->qx(qw(cat-file blob), $buf);
+	is($all, join('', @ref), 'qx returned array when wanted');
+	my $nl = scalar @ref;
+	ok($nl > 1, "qx returned array length of $nl");
 }
 
 done_testing();