How to push, without creating new heads, after creating multi-head branch, rebase and several merges

Question

I did a series of dumb steps with my local copy of our shared repository, and I'm looking for a way how to fix it. The steps are:

I used bookmarks to have multiple heads of a development branch, that other people use:

-o---o---o-----o---   <- dev branch
  \----1----1------   <- another head of the dev branch,
                         where I committed stuff

I created a new branch, still local, some time later

  /---------------x   <- new branch
-o---o---o-----o---   <- dev branch
  \----1----1------   <- another head of the dev branch,
                         where I committed stuff

for one head, that contains only my code, I did a rebase on another branch

                   /-1'--1'--  <- rebase
  /---------------x            <- new branch
-o---o---o-----o---            <- dev branch
  \----1----1------            <- another head of the dev branch,
                                  where I committed stuff

then, I merged the rebase, and then, a couple of commits later, I merged default

                   ----------d-\      <-default
                                \
                   /-1'--1'\     \
  /---------------x--------x--x-x-x-- <- new branch 
-o---o---o-----o---         
  \----1----1------

Now, I wanted to push my new branch to the server (hg push --new-branch -b newBranch), but I get abort: push creates new remote head, since commits 1' belong to dev branch.

What is the right thing to do? I would like to avoid creating this additional head.

Update:

Per request, this is the output of hg heads:

changeset:   839:f2033d695fcd  <- want to push this
branch:      newBranch
tag:         tip
user:        me
date:        Wed Oct 31 13:05:51 2012 +0100

changeset:   826:7fde19d7f467
branch:      devBranch
user:        my-collegue
date:        Tue Oct 23 14:59:42 2012 +0200

changeset:   820:23853bbf68df  <- the part after rebase that got merged
branch:      devBranch
user:        me
date:        Mon Oct 22 15:36:26 2012 +0200

changeset:   807:899344cfb145  <- obsolete (branch with 1's)
branch:      devBranch
parent:      711:454f29c03fb1
user:        me
date:        Mon Oct 22 15:36:26 2012 +0200

changeset:   712:d5e8a62a7f5f  <- default, needs to stay
parent:      648:2bbcc01aa191
user:        me
date:        Wed Aug 22 16:21:09 2012 +0200

Don't use free-hand "drawing" - you have console commands and ability to paste commands output in question formatted (hg log or hg glog for tree here and at stackoverflow.com/questions/11982648/…, for example). For now, please, add output of hg heads with comment - which head is obsolete and must not exist (totally or only in push-target). Also read about -r option in push command — Lazy Badger
Hi @LazyBadger, I can't provide you the output of log as there are much more commits than I described, and I also forgot the exact commands I executed in order to get to this state... Question updated to contain the output of heads. I don't understand your reference to -r option, how/why should it help? — Nikola Knezevic
exact commands doesn't needed in this case - you (not I) have to see tree of devBranch ( from common parent of 807 and 820 to 826), define the possibility (and necessity) of merging devBranch's heads. Or just push -r f2033d695fcd will be enough — Lazy Badger
@LazyBadger, if I try hg push -r f2033d695fcd --new-branch, I get abort: push creates new remote head 23853bbf68df on branch devBranch. This is what I'm trying to avoid. — Nikola Knezevic

Stephen Rasku Stephen Rasku · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-31T21:13:36

You can push only the one head you're interested in mercurial. For you that would mean doing:

hg push -r f2033d695fcd

If the destination repo has been updated you need to pull, merge, and re-push:

hg pull
hg up -r <remote head>
hg merge -r f2033d695fcd
hg ci
hg push

How to push, without creating new heads, after creating multi-head branch, rebase and several merges

2 Answers