env view failures: print underlying error message (#18713)

2 files changed, 13 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/lib/spack/llnl/util/filesystem.py b/lib/spack/llnl/util/filesystem.py
index f6bc1aecbc..1bc177a68b 100644
--- a/lib/spack/llnl/util/filesystem.py
+++ b/lib/spack/llnl/util/filesystem.py
@@ -680,7 +680,7 @@ def replace_directory_transaction(directory_name, tmp_root=None):
 
     try:
         yield tmp_dir
-    except (Exception, KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit):
+    except (Exception, KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit) as e:
         # Delete what was there, before copying back the original content
         if os.path.exists(directory_name):
             shutil.rmtree(directory_name)
@@ -691,6 +691,7 @@ def replace_directory_transaction(directory_name, tmp_root=None):
         tty.debug('DIRECTORY RECOVERED [{0}]'.format(directory_name))
 
         msg = 'the transactional move of "{0}" failed.'
+        msg += '\n    ' + str(e)
         raise RuntimeError(msg.format(directory_name))
     else:
         # Otherwise delete the temporary directory
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/test/cmd/env.py b/lib/spack/spack/test/cmd/env.py
index 998dd5d876..92c9e4bcb5 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/test/cmd/env.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/test/cmd/env.py
@@ -1041,6 +1041,17 @@ def test_env_updates_view_install(
     check_mpileaks_and_deps_in_view(view_dir)
 
 
+def test_env_view_fails(
+        tmpdir, mock_packages, mock_stage, mock_fetch, install_mockery):
+    view_dir = tmpdir.mkdir('view')
+    env('create', '--with-view=%s' % view_dir, 'test')
+    with ev.read('test'):
+        add('libelf')
+        add('libelf cflags=-g')
+        with pytest.raises(RuntimeError, match='merge blocked by file'):
+            install('--fake')
+
+
 def test_env_without_view_install(
         tmpdir, mock_stage, mock_fetch, install_mockery):
     # Test enabling a view after installing specs