Isn't it quite unfortunate that markdown chose setext-style headers by “underlining” with equal signs (=) meaning if a header is 7 characters long it's going to clash with the git conflicts markers (example below). Would it make sense to add an option to merge-file so merge tools can specify a custom marker that is statistically much less likely to clash with the kinds of text files that are typically stored in git repositories? cat ./ours.md A Second Level Header --------------------- Ours ======= Its ours The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back. cat ./base.md A Second Level Header --------------------- The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back. cat ./theirs.md A Second Level Header --------------------- Theirs ======= Its theirs The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back. git merge-file -p ./ours.md ./base.md ./theirs.md A Second Level Header --------------------- <<<<<<< ./ours.md Ours ======= Its ours ======= Theirs ======= Its theirs >>>>>>> ./theirs.md The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back.