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
adding b
copy .hg/patches to .hg/patches.1
1 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved
M b
a
b
merging with queue at: .hg/patches.1
applying rm_a
Now at: rm_a
b
Patch queue now empty