--- a/mercurial/commands.py	Mon Nov 19 16:05:40 2012 -0800
+++ b/mercurial/commands.py	Wed Nov 28 18:08:51 2012 -0600
@@ -928,6 +928,7 @@
                                        ' exists'),
                                      # i18n: "it" refers to an existing branch
                                      hint=_("use 'hg update' to switch to it"))
+            scmutil.checknewlabel(None, label, 'branch')
             repo.dirstate.setbranch(label)
             ui.status(_('marked working directory as branch %s\n') % label)
             ui.status(_('(branches are permanent and global, '
@@ -4510,7 +4511,7 @@
             else:
                 ui.write("%s = %s\n" % (name, util.hidepassword(path)))
 
-@command('^phase',
+@command('phase',
     [('p', 'public', False, _('set changeset phase to public')),
      ('d', 'draft', False, _('set changeset phase to draft')),
      ('s', 'secret', False, _('set changeset phase to secret')),