Data Analysis · June 2026

A simple distributional analysis of every rsync release with bug data. Nothing complicated, answers only one question: are the Claude-assisted releases unusually buggy?

Repository: RsyncProject/rsync

Method: severity-weighted bugs per 10 commits, exact permutation test

0 · Disclaimer: How AI Assistance Was Used

In order to avoid accuastions of this "just being Claude defending Claude," "AI slop," "probably all hallucinations," etc., I've decided it's probably worth explaining a few key points about how this report was created:

All metrics, methodology, and data sources were exclusively chosen by me, in consultation with my wife, who has a Master's Degree in Statistics from Penn State University.

The methodology is directly based on my wife's input: she was the one that pointed out that trying to just compare bugs per ten lines of code before and after would likely be too effected by noise because of the low number of post-Claude samples, and that, for similar reasons, trying…