The specific issue here seems to be that bzr+http is working fine, but at some early point bzr tries to do a plain GET of the branch-format file (rather than via HPSS), which gets a 404, and so you get a typically unhelpful NotABranch error.
I think the primary issue here is a server misconfiguration (it's always going to be confusing to have some URLs work for HPSS POSTs but not HTTP GETs), but I think it's possible for bzr to do better here.
Some things we could do to improve this:
* report back to the user that it appears that plain HTTP is failing, not HPSS, so that they can give a useful "it doesn't work" report to the site admin
* try an HPSS get if HTTP GET fails
* stop using VFS entirely!
* maybe something else?
The specific issue here seems to be that bzr+http is working fine, but at some early point bzr tries to do a plain GET of the branch-format file (rather than via HPSS), which gets a 404, and so you get a typically unhelpful NotABranch error.
I think the primary issue here is a server misconfiguration (it's always going to be confusing to have some URLs work for HPSS POSTs but not HTTP GETs), but I think it's possible for bzr to do better here.
Some things we could do to improve this:
* report back to the user that it appears that plain HTTP is failing, not HPSS, so that they can give a useful "it doesn't work" report to the site admin
* try an HPSS get if HTTP GET fails
* stop using VFS entirely!
* maybe something else?