bzr "Insecure string pickle"

I’ve been bit by a bug in the bzr source code control system where running a commit throws an ugly stack trace blaming an “insecure string pickle”, but I’ve found a workaround.

Environment:

• Mac OS X 10.11.4 build 15E65
• Python 2.7.11 installed via homebrew

• bzr 2.7.0 installed via homebrew.

  $ cd /path/to/dirty-bzr-repo/
  $ bzr commit
  bzr: ERROR: exceptions.ValueError: insecure string pickle
  
  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 930, in exception_to_return_code
  return the_callable(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 1121, in run_bzr
  ret = run(*run_argv)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 673, in run_argv_aliases
  return self.run(**all_cmd_args)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 697, in run
  return self._operation.run_simple(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/cleanup.py", line 136, in run_simple
  self.cleanups, self.func, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/cleanup.py", line 166, in _do_with_cleanups
  result = func(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/builtins.py", line 3687, in run
  lossy=lossy)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/decorators.py", line 218, in write_locked
  result = unbound(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/workingtree_4.py", line 218, in commit
  result = WorkingTree.commit(self, message, revprops, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/decorators.py", line 218, in write_locked
  result = unbound(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/mutabletree.py", line 211, in commit
  *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/commit.py", line 290, in commit
  lossy=lossy)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/cleanup.py", line 132, in run
  self.cleanups, self.func, self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/cleanup.py", line 166, in _do_with_cleanups
  result = func(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/commit.py", line 443, in _commit
  message = message_callback(self)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/builtins.py", line 3664, in get_message
  start_message=start_message)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/msgeditor.py", line 150, in edit_commit_message_encoded
  if not _run_editor(msgfilename):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/bzrlib/msgeditor.py", line 67, in _run_editor
  x = call(edargs + [filename])
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.11/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 522, in call
  return Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs).wait()
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.11/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 710, in __init__
  errread, errwrite)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.11/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1334, in _execute_child
  child_exception = pickle.loads(data)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.11/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/pickle.py", line 1388, in loads
  return Unpickler(file).load()
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.11/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/pickle.py", line 864, in load
  dispatch[key](self)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.11/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/pickle.py", line 972, in load_string
  raise ValueError, "insecure string pickle"
  ValueError: insecure string pickle
  
  bzr 2.7.0 on python 2.7.11 (Darwin-15.4.0-x86_64-i386-64bit)
  arguments: ['/usr/local/bin/bzr', 'commit']
  plugins: bash_completion[2.7.0], changelog_merge[2.7.0],
  fastimport[0.14.0dev], grep[2.7.0], launchpad[2.7.0],
  netrc_credential_store[2.7.0], news_merge[2.7.0], po_merge[2.7.0],
  weave_fmt[2.7.0]
  encoding: 'utf-8', fsenc: 'utf-8', lang: 'en_CA.UTF-8'
  
  *** Bazaar has encountered an internal error.  This probably indicates a
  bug in Bazaar.  You can help us fix it by filing a bug report at
      https://bugs.launchpad.net/bzr/+filebug
  including this traceback and a description of the problem.
  

I’ve been bit by this bug a few times. The easy workaround was to set the commit message on the command line:

$ cd /path/to/dirty-bzr-repo/
$ bzr commit -m "Some commit message"

Ultimately, the problem is that bzr expects BZR_EDITOR to be set. If it’s not, it will throw this cryptic exception. You can fix this by setting this environment variable in your shell.

# ~/.bash_profile

# Tell bzr which editor to use
export BZR_EDITOR=vim

I’ve filed lp:1579048 to document the bugs and workaround(s).