Don't expand empty [paths] so later interpolation can do the right thing.
Example:
[paths]
default =
default-push = %(default)s
diff -r 3903775176ed b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/b
@@ -0,0 +1,1 @@
+123
diff -r 3903775176ed b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/b
@@ -0,0 +1,1 @@
+123
diff -r 3903775176ed a
--- a/a
+++ b/a
@@ -0,0 +1,1 @@
+foo
diff -r 3903775176ed b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/b
@@ -0,0 +1,1 @@
+123