Cannot perform bzr operations on read-only files/directories

This is copied from this bug report for debian:

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=374673

Package: bzr
Version: 0.8.2-3
Severity: wishlist

If I do such things as 'bzr info', 'bzr diff' and 'bzr status', I get a
hard error if I do so in a directory I don't have write permissions to,
due to temporary files.

It'd be really really convenient if this were possible, like it's
possible with svn, so that one can quickly look at a status of a branch
without needing to branch.

--Jeroen

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.15-1-686
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages bzr depends on:
ii python2.4 2.4.3-7 An interactive high-level object-o
ii python2.4-celementtree 1.0.5-5 Light-weight toolkit for XML proce

bzr recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information

--
Jeroen van Wolffelaar
<email address hidden> (also for Jabber & MSN; ICQ: 33944357)
http://Jeroen.A-Eskwadraat.nl