diff --git a/mercurial/dirstate.py b/mercurial/dirstate.py
--- a/mercurial/dirstate.py
+++ b/mercurial/dirstate.py
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@
 
     @propertycache
     def _checkexec(self):
-        return util.checkexec(self._root)
+        return bool(util.checkexec(self._root))
 
     @propertycache
     def _checkcase(self):