diff --git a/mercurial/archival.py b/mercurial/archival.py
--- a/mercurial/archival.py
+++ b/mercurial/archival.py
@@ -18,9 +18,8 @@ import zlib
 from .i18n import _
 
 from . import (
-    cmdutil,
-    encoding,
     error,
+    formatter,
     match as matchmod,
     util,
     vfs as vfsmod,
@@ -80,30 +79,42 @@ def _rootctx(repo):
 def buildmetadata(ctx):
     '''build content of .hg_archival.txt'''
     repo = ctx.repo()
-    hex = ctx.hex()
-    if ctx.rev() is None:
-        hex = ctx.p1().hex()
-        if ctx.dirty(missing=True):
-            hex += '+'
+
+    default = (
+        r'repo: {root}\n'
+        r'node: {ifcontains(rev, revset("wdir()"),'
+                            r'"{p1node}{dirty}", "{node}")}\n'
+        r'branch: {branch|utf8}\n'
 
-    base = 'repo: %s\nnode: %s\nbranch: %s\n' % (
-        _rootctx(repo).hex(), hex, encoding.fromlocal(ctx.branch()))
+        # {tags} on ctx includes local tags and 'tip', with no current way to
+        # limit that to global tags.  Therefore, use {latesttag} as a substitute
+        # when the distance is 0, since that will be the list of global tags on
+        # ctx.
+        r'{ifeq(latesttagdistance, 0, latesttag % "tag: {tag}\n",'
+                       r'"{latesttag % "latesttag: {tag}\n"}'
+                       r'latesttagdistance: {latesttagdistance}\n'
+                       r'changessincelatesttag: {changessincelatesttag}\n")}'
+    )
 
-    tags = ''.join('tag: %s\n' % t for t in ctx.tags()
-                   if repo.tagtype(t) == 'global')
-    if not tags:
-        repo.ui.pushbuffer()
-        opts = {'template': '{latesttag}\n{latesttagdistance}\n'
-                            '{changessincelatesttag}',
-                'style': '', 'patch': None, 'git': None}
-        cmdutil.show_changeset(repo.ui, repo, opts).show(ctx)
-        ltags, dist, changessince = repo.ui.popbuffer().split('\n')
-        ltags = ltags.split(':')
-        tags = ''.join('latesttag: %s\n' % t for t in ltags)
-        tags += 'latesttagdistance: %s\n' % dist
-        tags += 'changessincelatesttag: %s\n' % changessince
+    opts = {
+        'template': default
+    }
+
+    out = util.stringio()
 
-    return base + tags
+    fm = formatter.formatter(repo.ui, out, 'archive', opts)
+    fm.startitem()
+    fm.context(ctx=ctx)
+    fm.data(root=_rootctx(repo).hex())
+
+    if ctx.rev() is None:
+        dirty = ''
+        if ctx.dirty(missing=True):
+            dirty = '+'
+        fm.data(dirty=dirty)
+    fm.end()
+
+    return out.getvalue()
 
 class tarit(object):
     '''write archive to tar file or stream.  can write uncompressed,