strange python error, when running hg log (well vc-print-root-log)

[Uwe Brauer]

Hi

Out of a sudden I obtain the following very strange python error 
even when disabling all extension, I obtain the same error
help would be appreciated

,----
| 
| ** unknown exception encountered, please report by visiting
| ** https://mercurial-scm.org/wiki/BugTracker
| ** Python 2.7.12 (default, Mar  1 2021, 11:38:31) [GCC 5.4.0 20160609]
| ** Mercurial Distributed SCM (version 5.2rc0+20200125)
| ** Extensions loaded: evolve, topic, absorb, blackbox, beautifygraph, churn, closehead, eol, extdiff, convert, fetch, hggit, hgk, histedit, journal, keyword, strip, mq, notify, patchbomb, purge, rebase, releasenotes, remotenames, share, show
| Traceback (most recent call last):
|   File "/usr/bin/hg", line 36, in <module>
|     dispatch.run()
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/dispatch.py", line 111, in run
|     status = dispatch(req)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/dispatch.py", line 250, in dispatch
|     ret = _runcatch(req) or 0
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/dispatch.py", line 424, in _runcatch
|     return _callcatch(ui, _runcatchfunc)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/dispatch.py", line 433, in _callcatch
|     return scmutil.callcatch(ui, func)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/scmutil.py", line 177, in callcatch
|     return func()
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/dispatch.py", line 414, in _runcatchfunc
|     return _dispatch(req)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/dispatch.py", line 1174, in _dispatch
|     lui, repo, cmd, fullargs, ui, options, d, cmdpats, cmdoptions
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/hgext/journal.py", line 93, in runcommand
|     return orig(lui, repo, cmd, fullargs, *args)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/dispatch.py", line 862, in runcommand
|     ret = _runcommand(ui, options, cmd, d)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/dispatch.py", line 1185, in _runcommand
|     return cmdfunc()
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/dispatch.py", line 1171, in <lambda>
|     d = lambda: util.checksignature(func)(ui, *args, **strcmdopt)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/util.py", line 1843, in check
|     return func(*args, **kwargs)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/util.py", line 1843, in check
|     return func(*args, **kwargs)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/hgext/mq.py", line 4212, in mqcommand
|     return orig(ui, repo, *args, **kwargs)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/util.py", line 1843, in check
|     return func(*args, **kwargs)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/commands.py", line 4701, in log
|     revs, differ = logcmdutil.getrevs(repo, pats, opts)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/logcmdutil.py", line 853, in getrevs
|     match, pats, slowpath = _makematcher(repo, revs, pats, opts)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/logcmdutil.py", line 707, in _makematcher
|     filelog = repo.file(f)
|   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial/localrepo.py", line 943, in file
|     if path[0] == b'/':
| IndexError: string index out of range
| 
| 
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`----