=== modified file 'bzrlib/builtins.py'
--- bzrlib/builtins.py	2008-06-03 05:14:53 +0000
+++ bzrlib/builtins.py	2008-06-06 05:12:41 +0000
@@ -995,9 +995,13 @@
                 branch = dir.open_branch()
             except errors.NoSuchRevision:
                 to_transport.delete_tree('.')
-                msg = "The branch %s has no revision %s." % (from_location, revision[0])
+                msg = "The branch %s has no revision %s." % (from_location,
+                    revision[0])
                 raise errors.BzrCommandError(msg)
             _merge_tags_if_possible(br_from, branch)
+            # If the source branch is shallow, the new branch may
+            # be shallow whether we asked for that explicitly or not.
+            # We therefore need a try/except here and not just 'if shallow:'
             try:
                 note('Created new shallow branch referring to %s.' %
                     branch.get_stacked_on())

=== modified file 'bzrlib/tests/blackbox/test_branch.py'
--- bzrlib/tests/blackbox/test_branch.py	2008-06-03 05:14:53 +0000
+++ bzrlib/tests/blackbox/test_branch.py	2008-06-06 05:12:41 +0000
@@ -98,13 +98,13 @@
         self.assertEqual(source_stat, target_stat)
 
     def assertShallow(self, branch_revid, stacked_on):
-        """Assert that the branch 'published' has been published correctly."""
+        """Assert that the branch 'newbranch' has been published correctly."""
         new_branch = branch.Branch.open('newbranch')
         # The branch refers to the mainline
         self.assertEqual(stacked_on, new_branch.get_stacked_on())
         # and the branch's work was pushed
         self.assertTrue(new_branch.repository.has_revision(branch_revid))
-        # but the mainlines was not included
+        # but the mainline's was not included
         repo = new_branch.bzrdir.open_repository()
         self.assertEqual(1, len(repo.all_revision_ids()))
 
@@ -133,8 +133,9 @@
         trunk_tree = self.make_branch_and_tree('mainline',
             format='development')
         trunk_tree.commit('mainline')
-        # and make branch from it which is shallow
-        out, err = self.run_bzr(['branch', '--shallow', 'mainline', 'newbranch'])
+        # and a branch from it which is shallow
+        out, err = self.run_bzr(['branch', '--shallow', 'mainline',
+            'newbranch'])
         self.assertEqual('', out)
         self.assertEqual('Created new shallow branch referring to %s.\n' %
             trunk_tree.branch.base, err)