Comment 7 for bug 244115

I agree that they want the entries in the directory to be "collapsed" together. Thinking closely about it, though, if we collapse things into the value in OTHER, it is actually better overall.

The reason is that the value then propagates. So if I do:

  cd branch1
  bzr merge ../branch2 # I now get branch2's file-id for NAME
  bzr commit -m "resolved some stuff"

  cd ../branch2
  bzr merge ../branch1 # No conflicts, because we are using the same file-ids.

However if you do the opposite:

  cd branch1
  bzr merge ../branch2 # Merge, but keep branch1's file-id for NAME
  bzr commit -m "Include branch2's changes."

  cd ../branch2
  bzr merge ../branch1 # Conflict *again*, but again resolve in favor of THIS
  bzr commit -m "bring in branch1"

  cd ../branch1
  bzr merge ../branch2 # Conflict *again* ...

I ran into this when working on "annotate". If in doubt, take "OTHER" because that "spreads" it to everyone, and eventually everyone agrees. If you always resolve in favor of THIS, then everyone always disagrees.