Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> https://lists.gnu.org/r/emacs-devel/2017-12/msg00340.html
>> https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=29366
>
> I guess we read different discussions, then.

I read the above.  Which discussions are you reading?

Let's count heads: Robert Pluim, Michael Albinus, Stefan Monnier, Stefan
Kangas, Glenn Morris, Juri Linkov have AFAICT all come out in support of
this change.  Some more forcefully than others.

I don't see anyone against the change.

> How can a simple bug in gitmerge be a proof of anything (except that
> bugs happen)?

The existence of the special code for this in gitmerge is already proof
that this is suboptimal.  If it is buggy, that makes it worse of course.

But even if there are no bugs in gitmerge.el, today or in the future, we
still lose the ability to use "git blame" in etc/NEWS.NN for the
previous release on master.

And what's the upside?  None, AFAICT.

Instead of working against fundamental limitations in git, it is easy or
even trivial to completely side-step the issue.  AFAICT, the attached
patch fixes this on GNU/Linux, but I think you would need to do more on
operating systems without symlink support.  (There is obviously also
more stuff to do in gitmerge.el and the install step.  I didn't bother
for this quick proof-of-concept though.)