Mercurial move changes to a new branch

I have a number of changes that I committed to my local repository, but have not yet been pushed. Since on a feature is taking longer than expected, I want to swap these changes onto a named branch before I push. How can I do this?

As suggested by Mark, the MqExtension is one solution for you problem. IMHO a simpler workflow is to use the rebase extension. Suppose you have a history like this:

@  changeset:   2:81b92083cb1d
|  tag:         tip
|  summary:     my new feature: edit file a
|
o  changeset:   1:8bdc4508ac7b
|  summary:     my new feature: add file b
|
o  changeset:   0:d554afd54164
   summary:     initial

This means, revision 0 is the base on which you started to work on your feature. Now you want to have revisions 1-2 on a named branch, let's say my-feature. Update to revision 0 and create that branch:

$ hg up 0
$ hg branch my-feature
$ hg ci -m "start new branch my-feature"

The history now looks like this:

@  changeset:   3:b5939750b911
|  branch:      my-feature
|  tag:         tip
|  parent:      0:d554afd54164
|  summary:     start new branch my-feature
|
| o  changeset:   2:81b92083cb1d
| |  summary:     my new feature: edit file a
| |
| o  changeset:   1:8bdc4508ac7b
|/   summary:     my new feature: add file b
|
o  changeset:   0:d554afd54164
   summary:     initial

Use the rebase command to move revisions 1-2 onto revision 3:

$ hg rebase -s 1 -d 3

This results in the following graph:

@  changeset:   3:88a90f9bbde7
|  branch:      my-feature
|  tag:         tip
|  summary:     my new feature: edit file a
|
o  changeset:   2:38f5adf2cf4b
|  branch:      my-feature
|  summary:     my new feature: add file b
|
o  changeset:   1:b5939750b911
|  branch:      my-feature
|  summary:     start new branch my-feature
|
o  changeset:   0:d554afd54164
   summary:     initial

That's it .. as mentioned in the comments to Mark's answer, moving around already pushed changesets generally is a bad idea, unless you work in a small team where you are able to communicate and enforce your history manipulation.

You can use the MqExtension. Let's say the changesets to move are revisions 1-3:

hg qimport -r 1:3    # convert revisions to patches
hg qpop -a           # remove all them from history
hg branch new        # start a new branch
hg qpush -a          # push them all back into history
hg qfin -a           # finalize the patches

I prefer the patch solution describe here by Mark Tolonen

What I have:

hg log -G

#default branch
@  changeset:   3:cb292fcdbde1
|
o  changeset:   2:e746dceba503
|
o  changeset:   1:2d50c7ab6b8f
|
o  changeset:   0:c22be856358b

What I want:

  @  changeset:   3:0e85ae268e35
  |  branch:      feature/my_feature
  |
  o  changeset:   2:1450cb9ec349
  |  branch:      feature/my_feature
  |
  o  changeset:   1:7b9836f25f28
  |  branch:      feature/my_feature
  |
 /
|
o  changeset:   0:c22be856358b

mercurials commands:

hg export -o feature.diff 1 2 3
hg update 0
hg branch feature/my_feature
hg import feature.diff

Here is the state of my local repository

@  changeset:   6:0e85ae268e35
|  branch:      feature/my_feature
|
o  changeset:   5:1450cb9ec349
|  branch:      feature/my_feature
|
o  changeset:   4:7b9836f25f28
|  branch:      feature/my_feature
|
| o  changeset:   3:cb292fcdbde1
| |
| o  changeset:   2:e746dceba503
| |
| o  changeset:   1:2d50c7ab6b8f
|/
|
o  changeset:   0:c22be856358b

Now I need to delete the revisions 1 2 and 3 from my default branch. You can do this with strip command from mq's extension. hg strip removes the changeset and all its descendants from the repository.

Enable the extension by adding following lines to your configuration file (.hgrc or Mercurial.ini):

vim ~/.hgrc and add :

[extensions]
mq =

And now strip this repository on revision 1.

hg strip 1

and here we are

@  changeset:   3:0e85ae268e35
|  branch:      feature/my_feature
|
o  changeset:   2:1450cb9ec349
|  branch:      feature/my_feature
|
o  changeset:   1:7b9836f25f28
|  branch:      feature/my_feature
|
o  changeset:   0:c22be856358b

note: changesets are different but revisions are the same

For those inclined to use GUI

1. Go to Tortoise Hg -> File -> Settings then tick rebase .

2. Restart tortoise UI

3. Create new branch where you will be moving changes. Click on current branch name -> choose Open a new named branch -> choose branch name.

4. If changes you want to move have not been made public (e.g draft) go to 5. (If changes have already been published and you are not a senior dev you should talk to someone senior (get a scapegoat) as you might screw things up big time, I don't take any responsibility :) ).

Go to View -> Show Console (or Ctrl + L) then write in console hg phase -f -d 2 - where 2 is lowest revision you will be moving to new branch.

5. Go to branch and revision (should be topmost revision if you are moving changes to new branch created in step 3.) Right Mouse -> Update

6. Go to branch and revsion you will be moving changes from Right Mouse -> Modify History -> Rebase

7. Click Rebase and pray there are no conflicts, merge if you must.

8. Push changes, at this point all revisions should still be draft.

9. Go to topmost revision in branch you were moving changes to Right Mouse -> Change Phase to -> Public.

Hope this saves you some time.