struct commit *result;
 
        init_merge_options(&o);
-       if (argv[0]) {
-               int namelen = strlen(argv[0]);
-               if (8 < namelen &&
-                   !strcmp(argv[0] + namelen - 8, "-subtree"))
-                       o.subtree_merge = 1;
-       }
+       if (argv[0] && !suffixcmp(argv[0], "-subtree"))
+               o.subtree_shift = "";
 
        if (argc < 4)
-               die("Usage: %s <base>... -- <head> <remote> ...", argv[0]);
+               usagef("%s <base>... -- <head> <remote> ...", argv[0]);
 
        for (i = 1; i < argc; ++i) {
-               if (!strcmp(argv[i], "--"))
-                       break;
+               const char *arg = argv[i];
+
+               if (!prefixcmp(arg, "--")) {
+                       if (!arg[2])
+                               break;
+                       if (!strcmp(arg+2, "ours"))
+                               o.recursive_variant = MERGE_RECURSIVE_OURS;
+                       else if (!strcmp(arg+2, "theirs"))
+                               o.recursive_variant = MERGE_RECURSIVE_THEIRS;
+                       else if (!strcmp(arg+2, "subtree"))
+                               o.subtree_shift = "";
+                       else if (!prefixcmp(arg+2, "subtree="))
+                               o.subtree_shift = arg + 10;
+                       else
+                               die("Unknown option %s", arg);
+                       continue;
+               }
                if (bases_count < ARRAY_SIZE(bases)-1) {
                        unsigned char *sha = xmalloc(20);
                        if (get_sha1(argv[i], sha))
                        bases[bases_count++] = sha;
                }
                else
-                       warning("Cannot handle more than %zu bases. "
-                               "Ignoring %s.", ARRAY_SIZE(bases)-1, argv[i]);
+                       warning("Cannot handle more than %d bases. "
+                               "Ignoring %s.",
+                               (int)ARRAY_SIZE(bases)-1, argv[i]);
        }
        if (argc - i != 3) /* "--" "<head>" "<remote>" */
                die("Not handling anything other than two heads merge.");