Question about shared repositories

[David Ingamells]

Russel Winder wrote:
> Perhaps a silly question but the situation will arise...
>
> Is renaming a branch stored in a shared repository a safe operation?  If
> done will it cause a change in size of the overall repository?
>
> Thanks.
>
>   
I don't think it's silly as I want to ask the same question: can I 
safely rename a branch in a repos? ;-)

Also another question: is it possible to disconnect a branch from it's 
parent. I know how to 'connect' a branch to a different parent by (e.g.) 
bzr pull --remember, but how do I set the parent branch to <none>?