repo start hiding useful error output

Affected Version:
repo version v1.6.9.5
       (from git://android.git.kernel.org/tools/repo.git)
git version 1.7.0.1
Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Jan 20 2010, 23:14:04) 
[GCC 4.2.4 (Ubuntu 4.2.4-1ubuntu3)]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. <get in a situation where git checkout -b ... would print an error>
   sorry I can't figure out how I did that to myself
2. repo sync .

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

$ repo start branch-name .
error: project-name/: cannot start branch-name

expected more useful error

Please provide any additional information below.

strace revealed there was more to see
   [pid 32202] write(2, "error: You have local changes to 
\'blah/blah/blah\'; cannot sw"..., 143) = 143

someone recommended running repo with --trace which revealed that the 
checkout was hiding output

$ repo --trace start branch-name . 
: unpickle 
/usr/local/google/home/projects/android/master/.repo/manifests.git/config
: unpickle /home/fnord/.gitconfig
: git check-ref-format heads/branch-name
: load refs 
/usr/local/google/home/projects/android/master/.repo/projects/foo.git
: unpickle 
/usr/local/google/home/projects/android/master/.repo/projects/foo.git/confi
g
: cd /usr/local/google/home/projects/android/master/libcore
: git checkout -b branch-name asdfe66e31388c2777da33c30fb2194ff5b427be 1>| 
2>|
error: libcore/: cannot start branch-name

Original issue reported on code.google.com by b...@google.com on 11 May 2010 at 12:11

petemoore / git-repo

repo start hiding useful error output #65