Typically `git-annex merge` is fast, but it could still be sped up.

`git-annex merge` runs `git-hash-object` once per file that needs to be
merged. Elsewhere in git-annex, `git-hash-object` is used in a faster mode,
reading files from disk via `--stdin-paths`. But here, the data is not
in raw files on disk, and I doubt writing them is the best approach.
Instead, I'd like a way to stream multiple objects into git using stdin.
Sometime, should look at either extending git-hash-object to support that,
or possibly look at using git-fast-import instead.

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`git-annex merge` also runs `git show` once per file that needs to be
merged. This could be reduced to a single call to `git-cat-file --batch`,
There is already a Git.CatFile library that can do this easily. --[[Joey]]

> This is now done, part above remains todo. --[[Joey]] 

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Merging used to use memory proportional to the size of the diff. It now
streams data, running in constant space. This probably sped it up a lot,
as there's much less allocation and GC action. --[[Joey]]