diff -r 5b4f963d21cc -r 95b9c6149e17 mercurial/merge.py
--- a/mercurial/merge.py	Wed Nov 06 17:02:07 2013 -0600
+++ b/mercurial/merge.py	Wed Jan 15 16:41:18 2014 -0600
@@ -696,6 +696,34 @@
                     node = repo.lookup("tip") # update to tip
                 else:
                     raise util.Abort(_("branch %s not found") % wc.branch())
+
+            if p1.obsolete() and not p1.children():
+                # allow updating to successors
+                successors = obsolete.successorssets(repo, p1.node())
+
+                # behavior of certain cases is as follows,
+                #
+                # divergent changesets: update to highest rev, similar to what
+                #     is currently done when there are more than one head
+                #     (i.e. 'tip')
+                #
+                # replaced changesets: same as divergent except we know there
+                # is no conflict
+                #
+                # pruned changeset: no update is done; though, we could
+                #     consider updating to the first non-obsolete parent,
+                #     similar to what is current done for 'hg prune'
+
+                if successors:
+                    # flatten the list here handles both divergent (len > 1)
+                    # and the usual case (len = 1)
+                    successors = [n for sub in successors for n in sub]
+
+                    # get the max revision for the given successors set,
+                    # i.e. the 'tip' of a set
+                    node = repo.revs("max(%ln)", successors)[0]
+                    pa = p1
+
         overwrite = force and not branchmerge
 
         p2 = repo[node]