find_repo had a complex loop and heavily nested conditionals, making it
difficult to follow.  Simplify this as much as possible:

- Separate assignments from conditionals.
- Check the complex loop condition in the only place it can change.
- Break out of the loop on error, rather than going through the rest of
  the loop body first.
- Handle error cases by immediately breaking, rather than nesting
  conditionals.
- Free repo_link unconditionally on the way out of the function, rather
  than in multiple places.
- Add more comments on the remaining complex steps.