Comment 2 for bug 53340

There is already a "bzr push --overwrite" that does a different thing: it allows pushing over a diverged branch, but retains the existing data to avoid doing a push from scratch.

I think "bzr push --delete" (preferred) or "bzr push --from-scratch" would be good names, as the most prominent characteristic of this operation is to delete remote data before proceeding normally.

That option should cause the deletion of all the contents of the target directory, then do a normal push. Data formats and presence of a working tree on the remote would not preserved (note: that gives a nice alternative to the slow "bzr upgrade" on remote branches). If the branch is part of a repository, the repository's bzr would be left alone (if the repository is corrupt, you have A Bigger Problem).