#include <sys/types.h>
 #include <sys/wait.h>
+#include <signal.h>
 
 #include "cache.h"
 
 {
        int i, force_file = 0;
 
+       /* Without this we cannot rely on waitpid() to tell
+        * what happened to our children.
+        */
+       signal(SIGCHLD, SIG_DFL);
+
        if (argc < 3)
                usage("git-merge-index [-o] [-q] <merge-program> (-a | <filename>*)");