diff --git a/mercurial/localrepo.py b/mercurial/localrepo.py
--- a/mercurial/localrepo.py
+++ b/mercurial/localrepo.py
@@ -1003,8 +1003,15 @@ class localrepository(repo.repository):
                     fixup = []
                     # do a full compare of any files that might have changed
                     ctx = self.changectx()
+                    mexec = lambda f: 'x' in ctx.fileflags(f)
+                    mlink = lambda f: 'l' in ctx.fileflags(f)
+                    is_exec = util.execfunc(self.root, mexec)
+                    is_link = util.linkfunc(self.root, mlink)
+                    def flags(f):
+                        return is_link(f) and 'l' or is_exec(f) and 'x' or ''
                     for f in lookup:
-                        if f not in ctx or ctx[f].cmp(self.wread(f)):
+                        if (f not in ctx or flags(f) != ctx.fileflags(f)
+                            or ctx[f].cmp(self.wread(f))):
                             modified.append(f)
                         else:
                             fixup.append(f)
diff --git a/tests/test-execute-bit b/tests/test-execute-bit
--- a/tests/test-execute-bit
+++ b/tests/test-execute-bit
@@ -4,12 +4,18 @@
 
 hg init
 echo a > a
-hg ci -d'0 0' -Am'not executable'
+hg ci -Am'not executable'
 
 chmod +x a
-hg ci -d'1 0' -m'executable'
+hg ci -m'executable'
 hg id
 
+echo '% make sure we notice the change of mode if the cached size == -1'
+hg rm a
+hg revert -r 0 a
+hg debugstate
+hg st
+
 hg up 0
 hg id
 test -x a && echo executable -- eek || echo not executable -- whew
diff --git a/tests/test-execute-bit.out b/tests/test-execute-bit.out
--- a/tests/test-execute-bit.out
+++ b/tests/test-execute-bit.out
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 adding a
-1549299e88d1 tip
+79abf14474dc tip
+% make sure we notice the change of mode if the cached size == -1
+n   0         -1 unset               a
+M a
 0 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved
 d69afc33ff8a
 not executable -- whew