Only set mode of new patch if the target file was removed before. If the file is writable by the user, but owned by a different user, the chmod will otherwise fail with "Operation not permitted". Additionally make very sure that the file is only written if either the number of links is <= 1 or the file was successfully removed. Maybe this minimal COW code should be replaced by something from util.

#!/bin/sh

hg init

echo % should fail
hg add .hg/00changelog.i

mkdir a
echo a > a/a
hg ci -Ama
ln -s a b
echo b > a/b

echo % should fail
hg add b/b

echo % should succeed
hg add b

echo % should still fail - maybe
hg add b/b

exit 0