title: Git Inaccurately Detects Merge Conflicts
body: <p>I understand the importance of merge conflicts, however the way git has been detecting them has been pretty absurd.</p>
  
  <p>I'm noticing that a small conflict on one or two line will often cause git to believe the entire file is different. I will frequently get a &lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt; HEAD and a >>>>>>> master that is essentially the entire file. Comparing them is a nightmare without using additional software like text-compare online. In fact, it detected a difference in .gitignore, and highlighted the entire file, but both &lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt; HEAD and >>>>> master were exactly identical. So a number of times now when I am fixing a merge conflict I have to go grab the developer and ask what lines were changed because according to git, EVERY line was changed.</p>
  
  <p>I'm working out of Netbeans for the project and Notepad ++ for the .gitignore, but this is making managing the project very difficult.</p>
  
  <p>Is there some setting or formatting I need to fix?</p>