No response to hg status after init on a new repo

[Harry Putnam]

Roger Pate <roger at qxxy.com> writes:

> Try a new directory:
>
>     $ mkdir new-repo
>     $ cd new-repo
>     $ ls -A
>     $ hg init
>     $ ls -A
>     .hg
>     $ date >file
>     $ hg status
>     ? file
>     $ hg add file
>     $ hg status
>     A file
>     $ hg commit -m'message'
>     $ hg status
>     $ hg status -A
>     C file
>

I've tracked this a bit better and here is what I see
Following your prescription above all works as expected.
then I copy 800+ file collection of files and directories into the new
repo.
hg status shows them all prefaced by `?' as expected.  Then I add this
.hgignore file:

  .hgignore content:
  syntax: glob
  ## editor leavings
  *~
  .*~
  *#*
  .*#*
  *.bak
  .*.bak
  .*.sw[op]
  
  syntax: regexp
  ^log/
  \.log

With that in place I then call

 hg status
 <no response at all>

date > test

hg status
 <no response at all.>

hg add
<No response>

hg commit
nothing changed

And this is completely repeatable

If I add a blank .hgignore... none of this happens

Oh and: cat .hgrc

  [ui]
  username = reader <reader at d0.local.lan>

So nothing remarkable there.

Can you tell if the above .hgignore file is causing this?
Can you see why that .hgignore file would cause this?