Avoiding massive merges

[hg user]

Sorry for this stupid question.
I recently imported a branched CVS repository and started to "play" with hg.
To hop from one branch (to change the content of the working directory) I
simply used:
hg branch <branchname>
hg update -C

Probably I didn't understand what John needs to do, simply switching working
directory content or backporting patches ?

In the first case, why should a merge be required..... ?

... I'm confused....

Francesco
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