title: Using git-svn (or similar) *just* to help out with an svn merge?
body: <p>Some complex subversion merges are coming up in my project: big branches that have been apart for a long time. Svn gives too many conflicts - and some of them seem spurious.</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>Given that <code>git</code> is praised for a superiour merge experience,
  Would it be any good to use <code>git-svn</code> <em>just for</em> the benefit of making the merge more manageable?</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>Can you recommend other alternatives (eg. <code>svk</code>, <code>hgsvn</code>) to lessen the merge pain?</p>
  
  <p>Some conflicts are easy enough to resolve (e.g java imports, whitespaces) - so I'm also  wondering if there is any automated solutions for those.</p>
  
  <p>A full switch to DVCS might happen in the future (some of us would love that), but not right now. (UPDATE: this isn't true any longer - the team switched fully recently and are happy about it).</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance.</p>
  
  <p>PS: there are posts that seem to be related (eg. <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2693771/git-svn-merge-2-svn-branches">git-svn merge 2 svn branches</a>) but they don't fully answer this question.</p>
  
  <p>Update: see my -novice- answer after going down (and up:) this road.</p>