What is the difference between the working copy and the current branch?

Question

I have just moved my source code to Hg on Bitbucket.  I'm using SourceTree, and I notice that when I click on the current (and only) branch, I get a list of all of the folders in the app; however, when I click on "working copy" I get nothing!

So, what is the difference between the two, and what action would I take to get the "working copy" to have something in it?

Seth · Accepted Answer

You'll want to check the dropdowns in those two views. Your working copy probably says "Show Pending", which will only show files that have changed since the last commit. When you click on your branch, it shows all the changes that were made in the last commit to your branch. Since you just created this repository using existing code, that initial commit will be the one where all of the files were added, so they'll all be displayed.

If you want to see all the files in your project, change the dropdown to "Show All".

To answer the high-level question, the "working copy" are the files you are currently editing. Changes you make there aren't versioned until you commit TO your branch.