title: Git ignore deleted folders during a merge?
body: <p>A developer has been working on some feature branch <code>f1</code> that branched off of <code>master</code>.</p>
  
  <p>Due to poor modularization of the repo (the system is modular, but lives in a monolithic repo) and other reasons, the developer decided to delete "a bunch of irrelevant stuff" (other modules unrelated to his feature) in the <code>f1</code> branch. The feature unit-tests successfully, but the branch now contains all these deletions of entire other modules of the system.</p>
  
  <p>What is the easiest, most painless way to merge <code>f1</code> back into <code>master</code> while ignoring folder deletions? Assume some of the files modified in <code>f1</code> were also modified in the evolution of <code>master</code>.</p>
  
  <p><em>Additional Requirement</em>
  Work on the <code>f1</code> branch may need to continue for a little while after the merge. I'm not quite sure how the answers proposed so far would impact that.</p>