Mercurial: Merging with uncommitted changes?

Question

I am trying to learn the merging and conflict-resolution workflow in mercurial. Am I supposed to commit any uncomitted changes in my working directory before I merge with another changeset?

What would happen if I merge before committing changes in my working directory?

Answer 1

Merging with uncommitted changes is a fundamentally unsound action. A merge can go wrong and when it does you want to be able to revert to your previous state, which is only possible if those changes are committed. If you can't bear to create a new changeset at that time commit them into a Mercurial Queue.