trying to clarify hg terminology -- working copy vs repository

[Adrian Buehlmann]

On 10.10.2009 10:59, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>   as a contrasting example, consider "hg tip".  as i read it, a repo
> has no concept of a "tip" -- that's strictly a transient concept
> related to the current state of your working copy, right?

No.

To the contrary: tip is unrelated to the working copy.

$ hg help tip

hg tip [-p]

show the tip revision

    The tip revision (usually just called the tip) is the changeset
    most recently added to the repository (and therefore the most
    recently changed head).

    If you have just made a commit, that commit will be the tip. If
    you have just pulled changes from another repository, the tip of
    that repository becomes the current tip. The "tip" tag is special
    and cannot be renamed or assigned to a different changeset.
...