diff -r 87ebf72878ed -r e4bfb9c337f3 mercurial/wireproto.py
--- a/mercurial/wireproto.py	Sat Apr 30 07:30:38 2011 -0500
+++ b/mercurial/wireproto.py	Sat Apr 30 13:59:14 2011 +0200
@@ -296,7 +296,7 @@
     if len(new) == 20 and new.encode('string-escape') != new:
         # looks like it could be a binary node
         try:
-            u = new.decode('utf-8')
+            new.decode('utf-8')
             new = encoding.tolocal(new) # but cleanly decodes as UTF-8
         except UnicodeDecodeError:
             pass # binary, leave unmodified