How to change the default branch to push in mercurial?

Question

I like creating named branches in Mercurial to deal with features that might take a while to code, so when I push I do a hg push -r default to insure I'm only pushing changes to the default branch. However, it is a pain to have to remember -r default every since time I do do a push or outgoing command.

So I tried fix this by adding this config to my ~/.hgrc:

[defaults]
push = push -r default
outgoing = outgoing -r default

The problem is, those config lines are not really defaults, they are aliases. They work as intended until I try to do a hg push -r <some revision>. And the "default" I've setup just obliterates the revision I passed in. (I see that defaults are deprecated, but aliases have the same problem).

I tried looking around, but I can't find anything that will allow me to set a default branch to push AND allow me to override it when necessary. Anyone know of something else I could do?

ps: I do realize that I could have separate clones for each branch, but I would rather not do that. It's annoying to have to switch directories, particularly when you have shared configuration or editor workspaces.

Answer 1

I don't think you can do it with pure mercurial, short of having a clone with only that branch in it (which I was was about to suggest until you said it wasn't your cup of tea). If it's really killing you you can create a tiny wrapper script like:

#!/bin/sh
HG=/full/path/to/hg # executable
if echo $* | grep -P -q -- 'push.*\s-r($|\s)' ; then
   $HG $*
else
   $HG $* -r default
fi

name it 'hg' and put it earlier in your path.