Comment 2 for bug 1644003

Things like bzr status etc. also work, but as soon as you try pull or incoming or some such command in a branch, it fails. This is a branch I have of a mainline on Launchpad. If I pull or worse ask for help on pull, see the following. Thus the importance is Critical as bzr is unusable.

|> bzr help pull
bzr: ERROR: exceptions.TypeError: first argument must be string or compiled pattern

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 930, in exception_to_return_code
    return the_callable(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 1121, in run_bzr
    ret = run(*run_argv)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 673, in run_argv_aliases
    return self.run(**all_cmd_args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 697, in run
    return self._operation.run_simple(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bzrlib/cleanup.py", line 136, in run_simple
    self.cleanups, self.func, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bzrlib/cleanup.py", line 166, in _do_with_cleanups
    result = func(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 1138, in ignore_pipe
    result = func(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bzrlib/builtins.py", line 4856, in run
    bzrlib.help.help(topic)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bzrlib/help.py", line 54, in help
    outfile.write(source.get_help_text(shadowed_terms))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 466, in get_help_text
    i18n.install() # Install i18n only for get_help_text for now.
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bzrlib/i18n.py", line 92, in install
    _translations = install_translations(lang)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bzrlib/i18n.py", line 114, in install_translations
    fallback=True)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 554, in translation
    t = _translations.setdefault(key, class_(fp))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 255, in __init__
    self._parse(fp)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 391, in _parse
    self.plural = c2py(plural)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 177, in c2py
    result, nexttok = _parse(_tokenize(plural))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 114, in _parse
    nexttok = next(tokens)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 85, in _tokenize
    for mo in re.finditer(_token_pattern, plural):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/re.py", line 190, in finditer
    return _compile(pattern, flags).finditer(string)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/re.py", line 247, in _compile
    raise TypeError, "first argument must be string or compiled pattern"
TypeError: first argument must be string or compiled pattern

bzr 2.8.0dev1 on python 2.7.12 (Linux-4.8.0-1-amd64-x86_64-with-debian-
    stretch-sid)
arguments: ['/usr/bin/bzr', 'help', 'pull']
plugins: bash_completion[2.8.0dev1], bookmarks[2.3.0dev], bzrtools[2.6.0],
    changelog_merge[2.8.0dev1], explorer[1.3.0], fastimport[0.14.0dev],
    grep[2.8.0dev1], launchpad[2.8.0dev1], netrc_credential_store[2.8.0dev1],
    news_merge[2.8.0dev1], po_merge[2.8.0dev1], qbzr[0.23.1],
    weave_fmt[2.8.0dev1], xmloutput[0.8.8]
encoding: 'utf-8', fsenc: 'UTF-8', lang: 'en_GB.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.