diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index cddd21638e70ca19b9f50bd39b0a29e096606465..4b0e5f8d484370150a52b5fcae2d686f9ec0afb8 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,12 +1,15 @@
 devscripts (2.18.8) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
 
-  [ Xavier Guimard ]
-  * French translation update.
-
   [ Reiner Herrmann ]
   * nmudiff:
     + Check for neomutt if mutt is not available.  Closes: #912083
 
+  [ Xavier Guimard ]
+  * French translation update.
+  * uscan:
+    + fix default compression suffix in git HEAD mode.
+      Closes: #912403; MR: !81
+
  -- Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>  Sun, 28 Oct 2018 16:30:43 +0100
 
 devscripts (2.18.7) unstable; urgency=medium
diff --git a/lib/Devscripts/Uscan/Utils.pm b/lib/Devscripts/Uscan/Utils.pm
index 2b6ec219860fe5db34f623581d49fa390951a68e..e65c776b198848c4f2f67f45ecf3ddccea0a1a5e 100644
--- a/lib/Devscripts/Uscan/Utils.pm
+++ b/lib/Devscripts/Uscan/Utils.pm
@@ -136,6 +136,9 @@ sub get_suffix ($) {
     # Normalize compression methods to the names used by Dpkg::Compression
     if (exists $opt2suffix{$compression}) {
         $canonical_suffix = $opt2suffix{$compression};
+    } elsif ($compression eq 'default') {
+        require Devscripts::MkOrigtargz::Config;
+        return &Devscripts::MkOrigtargz::Config::default_compression;
     } else {
         uscan_die "$progname: invalid suffix, $compression given.";
     }
diff --git a/test/test_uscan_git b/test/test_uscan_git
index f0caea1d2d43d293a09d6cf5f3d9f2dbbc10b10d..b323c45de670beed2081f2bbec9ab8766d24e3d0 100755
--- a/test/test_uscan_git
+++ b/test/test_uscan_git
@@ -97,11 +97,23 @@ makeDebianDirWithUpstream() {
     cd -
 }
 
+makeDebianDirHead() {
+    WATCHARGS=$1
+    makeDebianDir $WATCHARGS
+    cat <<END > $TMPDIR/$PKG/debian/watch
+version=4
+opts="mode=git,pretty=0.0+git%cd.%h" \
+file:///$TMPDIR/repo HEAD
+END
+}
+
 helperLaunch() {
     WATCHARGS=$1
     ARG="${2:-}"
     if test "$ARG" = "upstream"; then
         makeDebianDirWithUpstream $WATCHARGS
+    elif test "$ARG" = "HEAD"; then
+        makeDebianDirHead $WATCHARGS
     else
         makeDebianDir $WATCHARGS
     fi
@@ -118,6 +130,16 @@ testGit() {
     cleanup
 }
 
+testGitHead() {
+    helperLaunch "pgpmode=none" HEAD
+    ORIG=$(ls $TMPDIR|perl -ne 'print if/^foo.*\.orig\.tar\.xz/')
+    UPSTREAM=$(ls $TMPDIR|perl -ne 'print if/^foo.*(?<!orig)\.tar\.xz/')
+    assertTrue 'downloaded tarfile not present' "[ -f $TMPDIR/$UPSTREAM ]"
+    assertTrue 'pristine tarball is not created' "[ -f $TMPDIR/$ORIG ]"
+    assertTrue 'pristine tarball is a symlink' "[ -L $TMPDIR/$ORIG ]"
+    cleanup
+}
+
 testGitSignedTag() {
     helperLaunch "pgpmode=gittag"
     TARBALL=${PKG}_2.0.orig.tar.xz