diff --git a/manic/repository_factory.py b/manic/repository_factory.py
index 8e1b9aae3..18c73ffc4 100644
--- a/manic/repository_factory.py
+++ b/manic/repository_factory.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ def create_repository(component_name, repo_info, svn_ignore_ancestry=False):
     """Determine what type of repository we have, i.e. git or svn, and
     create the appropriate object.
 
-    Can return None if protocol is  'externals_only'.
+    Can return None (e.g. if protocol is 'externals_only').
     """
     protocol = repo_info[ExternalsDescription.PROTOCOL].lower()
     if protocol == 'git':
diff --git a/manic/sourcetree.py b/manic/sourcetree.py
index 4a907c1ff..eafd43e65 100644
--- a/manic/sourcetree.py
+++ b/manic/sourcetree.py
@@ -102,8 +102,8 @@ def status(self):
         """
         Returns status of this component and all subcomponents (if available).
 
-        Returns a dict mapping our local path to an ExternalStatus dict (plus
-        additional entries for any subcomponents)
+        Returns a dict mapping our local path to an ExternalStatus dict. Any
+        subcomponents will have their own top-level key.
 
         Populates self._stat as a side effect.
         """
@@ -303,6 +303,9 @@ def __init__(self, root_dir, ext_description, svn_ignore_ancestry=False):
     def status(self, relative_path_base=LOCAL_PATH_INDICATOR):
         """Return a dictionary of local path->ExternalStatus.
 
+        Note that all traversed components, whether recursive or top-level, have
+        a top-level key in the returned dictionary.
+
         FIXME(bja, 2017-10) what do we do about situations where the
         user checked out the optional components, but didn't add
         optional for running status? What do we do where the user
@@ -328,7 +331,7 @@ def status(self, relative_path_base=LOCAL_PATH_INDICATOR):
                     modified_path = os.path.join(relative_path_base,
                                                  stat[name].path)
                     stat_final[modified_path] = stat[name]
-                    stat_final[modified_path].ppath = modified_path
+                    stat_final[modified_path].path = modified_path
             summary.update(stat_final)
 
         return summary