How about an incremental step? (I don't know how difficult it would be to implement however)...

What about separating the change log to a separate file in dist-git? Something like the traditional "ChangeLog"?

I like to keep my spec files in sync between releases unless there's a good reason for them to diverge but sometimes there are changes to a specific release that aren't really a part of the others. 

That way I can keep the spec files in sync (git merge master, et. all) but without merging changelogs that don't actually apply to that release (and dealing with merge conflicts)?

Thanks,

Richard