Sure, experienced devs and people that have drush/bee available would run drush pml or bee pml and grab a lists of modules, but this person on the forum posted multiple screenshots of the modules listing page when asked: https://forum.backdropcms.org/comment/3572#comment-3572 ...and they had to do it in multiple screenshots, in multiple posts.

When later they mentioned that they had the same issue on a different site, and asked to compare the versions of modules between the 2 sites, they responded:

a lot are common difficult to say it can take hours to test

If Backdrop core allowed the person to easily extract plain-text lists of the modules on each site, then it would be easier for them to compare the lists.

I would like us to introduce an easy way (under the rest of the site reports I guess), to allow people to get a plain-text list of modules/themes/layouts etc., which they can then copy/paste to forum posts and issues if that is requested of them.

Another thought is to add "export" links/buttons in key pages, like the site status report, that would allow people to grab a plain-text list of php, version, db type/version, web server type/version etc.

All that would allow us to provide instructions like the bellow in issue templates (fictional scenario - assumptions about the way we implement this feature):

  1. Navigate to Reports -> Status report using the admin bar at the top of the site
  2. Click the "Copy basic information" link at the top-right of the page.
  3. Paste this information here.
GitHub Issue #: 
5461