diff --git a/releng.control/addRepoProperties.sh b/releng.control/addRepoProperties.sh
index 20689bcc869e97116a627c2875fccab13f71d855..e4fff0dbaa3d63b794cd9a2b4423864f5b3000ac 100644
--- a/releng.control/addRepoProperties.sh
+++ b/releng.control/addRepoProperties.sh
@@ -25,13 +25,15 @@ BUILD_BRANCH=$2
 BUILD_ID=$3
 STATS_TAG_SUFFIX=$4
 
-if [[ -z REPO ]]
+if [[ -z "${REPO}" ]]
 then
   echo "ERROR: this script requires a repository to add properties to."; 
   exit 1;
 fi
 
-echo "BUILD_BRANCH: ${}
+echo "BUILD_BRANCH: ${BUILD_BRANCH}";
+echo "BUILD_ID: ${BUILD_ID}";
+echo "STATS_TAG_SUFFIX: ${STATS_TAG_SUFFIX}";
 
 if [[ \( ! \( -z "${BUILD_BRANCH"} \) \) -a \( ! \( -z "${BUILD_ID}" \) \) ]]
 then 
diff --git a/releng.control/promote.sh b/releng.control/promote.sh
index 2939e878b772bc377b0bfaccc12c916a8b81f606..a1fe8ddaac1fcdcbce7f01d38528ea9ec3c46f66 100755
--- a/releng.control/promote.sh
+++ b/releng.control/promote.sh
@@ -187,11 +187,16 @@ fi
 # TODO: we currently do not add properties to tests repo ... maybe should? for mirror URL, at least. 
 # TODO: a fourth argument can be specified to provide stats suffix 
 # such as _helios_SR2, _indigo_SR0 ... but, takes some customization updated fairly often, to be accurate. 
-if [[ $addProperties -a \( -d "${repoDirLocation}" \) ]]
-then
-     ${RELENG_CONTROL}/addRepoProperties.sh "${repoDirLocation}" "${buildBranch}" "${dropDirName}"
-fi
-
+if [[ $addProperties ]] 
+then 
+   repoDirLocation=$FROMDIR/repository
+   if [[ -d "${repoDirLocation}" ]]
+       then
+              ${RELENG_CONTROL}/addRepoProperties.sh "${repoDirLocation}" "${buildBranch}" "${dropDirName}"
+       else 
+              echo "ERROR: addProperties requested, but repo location does not exist: ${repoDirLocation}";
+       fi
+fi 
 
 if [ "patches" == $distribution ] 
 then