Unexpected merge results in git-svn repo

I am getting some unexpected results from a merge and I'd like to understand why.

I have two commits X and Y that I want to merge.

git merge-base X Y # yields B git diff B X -- F # is empty git diff B Y -- F # contains the change I want merged git rev-list X ^B -- F # is empty git rev-list Y ^B -- F # contains one commit

git checkout X git merge Y

fails with fixable merge conflicts on other files, but uses X's copy of F instead of Y's.

I was expecting it to use Y's copy of F, since only Y has modified F since B.

What could cause this?

BTW: I am using a git-svn repo that does have some 4+ parent merges in it.

jon.