diff --git a/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt b/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt
index 049313d60..a5ae14fba 100644
--- a/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt
+++ b/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt
@@ -40,6 +40,13 @@ the other tree did, declaring 'our' history contains all that happened in it.
 theirs;;
 	This is opposite of 'ours'.
 
+patience;;
+	With this option, 'merge-recursive' spends a little extra time
+	to avoid mismerges that sometimes occur due to unimportant
+	matching lines (e.g., braces from distinct functions).  Use
+	this when the branches to be merged have diverged wildly.
+	See also linkgit:git-diff[1] `--patience`.
+
 renormalize;;
 	This runs a virtual check-out and check-in of all three stages
 	of a file when resolving a three-way merge.  This option is
diff --git a/builtin/merge-recursive.c b/builtin/merge-recursive.c
index 5a52f3d0a..70e1d258f 100644
--- a/builtin/merge-recursive.c
+++ b/builtin/merge-recursive.c
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 #include "commit.h"
 #include "tag.h"
 #include "merge-recursive.h"
+#include "xdiff-interface.h"
 
 static const char *better_branch_name(const char *branch)
 {
diff --git a/ll-merge.c b/ll-merge.c
index 4d8e321b0..007dd3e4d 100644
--- a/ll-merge.c
+++ b/ll-merge.c
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ static int ll_xdl_merge(const struct ll_merge_driver *drv_unused,
 	memset(&xmp, 0, sizeof(xmp));
 	xmp.level = XDL_MERGE_ZEALOUS;
 	xmp.favor = opts->variant;
+	xmp.xpp.flags = opts->xdl_opts;
 	if (git_xmerge_style >= 0)
 		xmp.style = git_xmerge_style;
 	if (marker_size > 0)
diff --git a/ll-merge.h b/ll-merge.h
index 4b707f06c..244a31f55 100644
--- a/ll-merge.h
+++ b/ll-merge.h
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ struct ll_merge_options {
 	unsigned virtual_ancestor : 1;
 	unsigned variant : 2;	/* favor ours, favor theirs, or union merge */
 	unsigned renormalize : 1;
+	long xdl_opts;
 };
 
 int ll_merge(mmbuffer_t *result_buf,
diff --git a/merge-recursive.c b/merge-recursive.c
index 0e9a29d32..3e67f8145 100644
--- a/merge-recursive.c
+++ b/merge-recursive.c
@@ -613,6 +613,7 @@ static int merge_3way(struct merge_options *o,
 	int merge_status;
 
 	ll_opts.renormalize = o->renormalize;
+	ll_opts.xdl_opts = o->xdl_opts;
 
 	if (o->call_depth) {
 		ll_opts.virtual_ancestor = 1;
@@ -1512,6 +1513,8 @@ int parse_merge_opt(struct merge_options *o, const char *s)
 		o->subtree_shift = "";
 	else if (!prefixcmp(s, "subtree="))
 		o->subtree_shift = s + strlen("subtree=");
+	else if (!strcmp(s, "patience"))
+		o->xdl_opts |= XDF_PATIENCE_DIFF;
 	else if (!strcmp(s, "renormalize"))
 		o->renormalize = 1;
 	else if (!strcmp(s, "no-renormalize"))
diff --git a/merge-recursive.h b/merge-recursive.h
index 37ff99a29..d21b446a1 100644
--- a/merge-recursive.h
+++ b/merge-recursive.h
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ struct merge_options {
 	const char *subtree_shift;
 	unsigned buffer_output : 1;
 	unsigned renormalize : 1;
+	long xdl_opts;
 	int verbosity;
 	int diff_rename_limit;
 	int merge_rename_limit;