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.

adding a
marked working directory as branch b
adding b
0 files updated, 0 files merged, 1 files removed, 0 files unresolved
fast-forward
1 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved
(branch merge, don't forget to commit)
bogus fast-forward should fail
abort: there is nothing to merge, just use 'hg update' or look at 'hg heads'
done