--- a/client.py
+++ b/client.py
@@ -51,17 +51,17 @@ def do_hg_pull(dir, repository, hg, rev)
     # clone if the dir doesn't exist, pull if it does
     hgopts = []
     if options.hgopts:
         hgopts = options.hgopts.split()
     if not os.path.exists(fulldir):
         fulldir = os.path.join(topsrcdir, dir)
         check_call_noisy([hg, 'clone'] + hgopts + [repository, fulldir])
     else:
-        cmd = [hg, 'pull', '-R', fulldir ] + hgopts
+        cmd = [hg, 'pull', '-R', fulldir, '-r', 'tip' ] + hgopts
         if repository is not None:
             cmd.append(repository)
         check_call_noisy(cmd)
     # update to specific revision
     if options.verbose:
         cmd = [hg, 'update', '-v', '-r', rev, '-R', fulldir ] + hgopts
     else:
         cmd = [hg, 'update', '-r', rev, '-R', fulldir ] + hgopts