Code review comment for lp:~spiv/bzr-builder/merge-subdirs-479705

> Hi,
>
> Thanks for working on this.
>
> I have some concerns about the utility of it. If the branch
> you are merging doesn't make any modifications outside of
> ./debian/ then this makes no difference, therefore it must
> be for the case where it does.

This is false. If the branches are not related, merging a subdir can avoid very many unnecessary conflicts while still generating a single tree.

> Is this then to take the packaging without any modifications
> to the source, so that it is a vanilla packaging?

Or to merge unrelated branches.

> As for a code review, two things mean that this is not mergeable
> as is:
>
> * Needs a format bump.

I don't see why it needs this: old versions will error appropriately, new versions will work.

If old versions would misbehave then I'd agree on the need to bump the format.