A friend showed me this reduced test case. It seems to work fine with bzr and hg. Is this a git bug? >: git --version git version 1.6.3.1 >: git init Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/lut4rp/Code/tester/.git/ >: echo asdjhaskd >fil >: git add fil >: git cm 'initial commit' [master (root-commit) 9983161] initial commit 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) create mode 100644 fil >: git branch new >: git branch * master new >: git mv fil fila >: git status # On branch master # Changes to be committed: # (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage) # # renamed: fil -> fila # >: git cm 'renamed to fila' [master 9de0953] renamed to fila 1 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) rename fil => fila (100%) >: git co new Switched to branch 'new' >: git rm fil rm 'fil' >: echo asjhdajkhsdkajhs >fila >: git add fila >: git cm 'renamed, heavily modified' [new 5914271] renamed, heavily modified 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 fil create mode 100644 fila >: git co master Switched to branch 'master' >: git merge new CONFLICT (rename/delete): Rename fil->fila in HEAD and deleted in new Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result. >: cat fila asdjhaskd #### Still the master branch's content, `merge` apparently did nothing. >: git show :2:fila asdjhaskd >: git show :3:fila fatal: ambiguous argument ':3:fila': unknown revision or path not in the working tree. Use '--' to separate paths from revisions >: git show new:fila asjhdajkhsdkajhs ajksh askjdhaksdh kajshdk asd -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html