create a commit of changes between two branches - version-control

Question

I created branch br1 from default a few months back. I have been committing and pushing changes to br1 since then. Every now and then pulling in changes from default as follows:
hg up br1
hg merge default
// create a commit, push
I want to create a commit message of all the changes I made to br1 over the last few months. branch br1 and default are clean in my workspace, aka no uncommitted changes, no un-pushed commit. At this point, br1 is out of sync with default by 1 week. I did the following steps:
hg up default
hg merge br1
// At this point, "hg stat" shows files that I did not modify in br1. :(
// So, if I created a commit message at this point, it would be no good.
// I am not sure why these addition file modifications showed up.
I figured the issue might be because br1 is out of sync from default by a week. I performed the following set of steps in a clean workspace:
hg up br1
hg merge default
// created a commit -**ch1**, but did **NOT push**
hg up default
hg merge br1
// At this point, "hg stat" shows the same additional files as my pervious
// attempt. :(
Question:
- Does "hg merge" disregards commit that are not pushed?
- Do I need to push ch1 for these additional files to not to show up? Is this the reason for the additional files showing up when do a "hg merge br1"?
- Is there a way I can tell hg to take the ch1 into account when doing the merge from br1.
Thank you,
Ahmed.

Answer 1

well, since you didn't provide a working example, I'll have to build one from scratch, so forgive me for the bunch of command lines below
explanation at the end, because only makes sense if you follow the example steps
preparing the stage
# create a new dir an initialize the repository
mkdir hgtrial
cd hgtrial
hg init
# create an empty file and make first commit on default branch
echo . > dummy.txt
hg add dummy.txt
hg commit -m "1st commit"
# add info and make a second commmit also on default branch
echo abc >> dummy.txt
hg commit -m "2nd commit"
# create a new branch and make an empty commit on it
hg branch br1
hg commit -m "my new branch"
# work on br1
echo def >> dummy.txt
hg commit -m "def on br1"
# work on default (make br1 out of sync)
hg up default
echo ghi >> dummy.txt
hg commit -m "ghi on default"
echo jkl >> dummy.txt
hg commit -m "jkl on default"
# sync br1 by pulling default
hg up br1
hg merge default
# solve merge conflicts (abc def ghi jkl)
hg commit -m "br1 <- default"
# continue working on br1 (without touching dummy.txt)
echo 123 > another.txt
hg add another.txt
hg commit -m "another file"
echo 456 >> another.txt
hg commit -m "456"
# work on default (make br1 out of sync)
hg up default
echo yes-yes > one-more.txt
hg add one-more.txt
hg commit -m "yes-yes, on default"
echo no-no >> one-more.txt
hg commit -m "no-no, on default"
now the issue (notice we are standing on default branch)
# now the problem (scenario 1)
hg merge br1
hg stat
# dummy.txt is modified, trying to bring "def" from br1 into default
# abort
# checkout clean br1 (drop merge in progress)
hg up -C br1
hg merge default
hg commit -m "br1 <- default"
# the problem again (scenario 2)
hg up default
hg merge br1
hg stat
# dummy.txt is modified, trying to bring "def" from br1 into default
# SAME THING!
why?
because at some point "def" change was made in br1 and default never knew about it, so even when you haven't touch dummy.txt in a long while, you have synced default into br1, but no the other way around, therefore default has a lot to catch up with
EDIT: added screenshot with this scenario in TortoiseHg