The "branch" command was added by Jeremy Cowgar about 10 months ago, during
a burst of productivity.  But since then, we haven't heard anything from
Jeremy.  I do not know what the "branch" command is intended to do, so I
cannot judge whether or not it is working correctly or not.  My inclination is
simply to delete the command all together.  I do not see that it does
anything useful.

Please take further discussion of the "branch" command to the mailing list.
In general, tickets should be used to report real bugs.  Please do not use
tickets as a place to ask questions or as a discussion forum.