git-format-patch for binary files / merges [Re: Expose subprojects as special files to "git diff" machinery]

Linus Torvalds wrote:

quoted

Isn't this dangerous because it looks just like a normal diff with a 
file being rewritten, when in truth it is a tree entry record being 
rewritten.
    

Well, that's exactly what symlinks do too.

You have to look at the mode to know what the rewriting *means*.

But yeah, I wouldn't object at all to making it an "extended git header" 
instead (possibly just for subprojects, possibly for symlinks too)
  

Speaking of 'custom' patch file formats, anyone put any thought to a
format for the commits which can't be represented with patch, like
binary files and merges?

Sam.