diff -r a736ab681b78 -r d2e1dcd4490d mercurial/debugcommands.py
--- a/mercurial/debugcommands.py	Thu Oct 08 15:35:44 2020 -0700
+++ b/mercurial/debugcommands.py	Thu Oct 08 13:37:31 2020 -0700
@@ -1770,7 +1770,7 @@
     try:
         username = ui.username()
     except error.Abort as e:
-        err = stringutil.forcebytestr(e)
+        err = e.message
         problems += 1
 
     fm.condwrite(