ok, running as root is bad.  I get that.
I shouldn't be doing this.  I get that, too
Came up with a better way to do things.  Mission accomplished.

But the error message doesn't look like I'd expect for "you are
being an idiot".

/root # got checkout /got/ibs.git
got(6695) in free(): bogus pointer (double free?) 0x7f7ffffee850
Abort trap

Same command run as non-root user works fine.

is this a problem, or just a way to say, "maybe you need to
reevaluate your life choices"?

Nick.Secopn