add dirstate._dirtypl variable Theoretically, it's possible to forget modified dirstate parents by doing: dirstate.invalidate() dirstate.setparents(p1, p2) dirstate._map The final access to _map should call _read(), which will unconditionally overwrite dirstate._pl. This doesn't actually happen right now because invalidate accidentally ends up rebuilding dirstate._map.

#!/bin/sh

hg init

mkdir alpha
touch alpha/one
mkdir beta
touch beta/two

hg add alpha/one beta/two
hg ci -m "start" -d "1000000 0"

echo 1 > alpha/one
echo 2 > beta/two

echo EVERYTHING
hg diff --nodates

echo BETA ONLY
hg diff --nodates beta

echo INSIDE BETA
cd beta
hg diff --nodates .