On win98 os.path.expanuser('~') does not result in a useable directory. The MSDN recommendation for user specific directories is the use of shell.ShGetSpecialFolder, so use it. For details see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/reference/functions/shgetspecialfolderpath.asp

#!/bin/sh

mkdir t
cd t
hg init
echo a > a
hg add a
hg commit -m test -d "1000000 0"
hg history
hg manifest
hg cat a
hg verify