diff --git a/tools/pkgbase/metalog_reader.lua b/tools/pkgbase/metalog_reader.lua
--- a/tools/pkgbase/metalog_reader.lua
+++ b/tools/pkgbase/metalog_reader.lua
@@ -392,12 +392,18 @@
 			if #rows == 1 then goto continue end
 			local iseq, offby = metalogrows_all_equal(rows)
 			if iseq then -- repeated line, just a warning
-				warn[#warn+1] = 'warning: '..filename
-					.. ' ' .. rows[1].attrs.type
-					..' repeated with same meta: line '
-					..table.concat(
-						table_map(rows, function(e) return e.linenum end), ',')
-				warn[#warn+1] = '\n'
+				local dupmsg = filename .. ' ' ..
+				    rows[1].attrs.type ..
+				    ' repeated with same meta: line ' ..
+				    table.concat(table_map(rows, function(e) return e.linenum end), ',')
+				if rows[1].attrs.type == "dir" then
+					if verbose then
+						warn[#warn+1] = 'warning: ' .. dupmsg .. '\n'
+					end
+				else
+					-- XXX downgrade to warning until instances in the tree are fixed (PR271178)
+					warn[#warn+1] = 'error: ' .. dupmsg .. '\n'
+				end
 			elseif not metalogrows_all_equal(rows, false, true) then
 			-- same filename (possibly different tags), different metadata, an error
 				errs[#errs+1] = 'error: '..filename