merge-recursive.c | 42 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
 1 file changed, 29 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/merge-recursive.c b/merge-recursive.c
index 0c0d48624..ed2200065 100644
--- a/merge-recursive.c
+++ b/merge-recursive.c
@@ -815,6 +815,32 @@ static int make_room_for_path(struct merge_options *o, const char *path)
 	return err(o, msg, path, _(": perhaps a D/F conflict?"));
 }
 
+static int working_tree_matches(const char *path, const char *buf, unsigned long size, unsigned mode)
+{
+	int fd, matches;
+	struct stat st;
+
+	fd = open(path, O_RDONLY);
+	if (fd < 0)
+		return 0;
+	matches = 0;
+	if (!fstat(fd, &st) && st.st_size == size && S_ISREG(st.st_mode) && !(0700 & (st.st_mode ^ mode))) {
+		char tmpbuf[1024];
+		while (size) {
+			int n = read(fd, tmpbuf, sizeof(tmpbuf));
+			if (n <= 0 || n > size)
+				break;
+			if (memcmp(tmpbuf, buf, n))
+				break;
+			buf += n;
+			size -= n;
+		}
+		matches = !size;
+	}
+	close(fd);
+	return matches;
+}
+
 static int update_file_flags(struct merge_options *o,
 			     const struct object_id *oid,
 			     unsigned mode,
@@ -856,6 +882,8 @@ static int update_file_flags(struct merge_options *o,
 				size = strbuf.len;
 				buf = strbuf_detach(&strbuf, NULL);
 			}
+			if (working_tree_matches(path, buf, size, mode))
+				goto free_buf;
 		}
 
 		if (make_room_for_path(o, path) < 0) {
@@ -1782,20 +1810,8 @@ static int merge_content(struct merge_options *o,
 
 	if (mfi.clean && !df_conflict_remains &&
 	    oid_eq(&mfi.oid, a_oid) && mfi.mode == a_mode) {
-		int path_renamed_outside_HEAD;
 		output(o, 3, _("Skipped %s (merged same as existing)"), path);
-		/*
-		 * The content merge resulted in the same file contents we
-		 * already had.  We can return early if those file contents
-		 * are recorded at the correct path (which may not be true
-		 * if the merge involves a rename).
-		 */
-		path_renamed_outside_HEAD = !path2 || !strcmp(path, path2);
-		if (!path_renamed_outside_HEAD) {
-			add_cacheinfo(o, mfi.mode, &mfi.oid, path,
-				      0, (!o->call_depth), 0);
-			return mfi.clean;
-		}
+		/* We could set a flag here and pass it to "update_file()" */
 	} else
 		output(o, 2, _("Auto-merging %s"), path);