The command takes various subcommands, and different options depending
on the subcommand:
+ git bisect help
git bisect start [<bad> [<good>...]] [--] [<paths>...]
git bisect bad [<rev>]
git bisect good [<rev>...]
- git bisect skip [<rev>...]
+ git bisect skip [(<rev>|<range>)...]
git bisect reset [<branch>]
git bisect visualize
git bisect replay <logfile>
git bisect log
git bisect run <cmd>...
-This command uses 'git-rev-list --bisect' option to help drive the
+This command uses 'git rev-list --bisect' to help drive the
binary search process to find which change introduced a bug, given an
old "good" commit object name and a later "bad" commit object name.
+Getting help
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Use "git bisect" to get a short usage description, and "git bisect
+help" or "git bisect -h" to get a long usage description.
+
Basic bisect commands: start, bad, good
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
$ git bisect reset
------------------------------------------------
-to get back to the original branch, instead of being in one of the
-bisection branches ("git bisect start" will do that for you too,
-actually: it will reset the bisection state, and before it does that
-it checks that you're not using some old bisection branch).
+to get back to the original branch, instead of being on the bisection
+commit ("git bisect start" will do that for you too, actually: it will
+reset the bisection state).
Bisect visualize
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
$ git bisect visualize
------------
-to see the currently remaining suspects in `gitk`. `visualize` is a bit
+to see the currently remaining suspects in 'gitk'. `visualize` is a bit
too long to type and `view` is provided as a synonym.
-If `DISPLAY` environment variable is not set, `git log` is used
+If 'DISPLAY' environment variable is not set, 'git log' is used
instead. You can even give command line options such as `-p` and
`--stat`.
eventually not be able to tell the first bad among a bad and one or
more "skip"ped commits.
+You can even skip a range of commits, instead of just one commit,
+using the "'<commit1>'..'<commit2>'" notation. For example:
+
+------------
+$ git bisect skip v2.5..v2.6
+------------
+
+would mean that no commit between `v2.5` excluded and `v2.6` included
+can be tested.
+
+Note that if you want to also skip the first commit of a range you can
+use something like:
+
+------------
+$ git bisect skip v2.5 v2.5..v2.6
+------------
+
+and the commit pointed to by `v2.5` will be skipped too.
+
Cutting down bisection by giving more parameters to bisect start
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
or bad, you can automatically bisect using:
------------
-$ git bisect run my_script
+$ git bisect run my_script arguments
------------
Note that the "run" script (`my_script` in the above example) should
work around other problem this bisection is not interested in")
applied to the revision being tested.
-To cope with such a situation, after the inner git-bisect finds the
+To cope with such a situation, after the inner 'git bisect' finds the
next revision to test, with the "run" script, you can apply that tweak
before compiling, run the real test, and after the test decides if the
revision (possibly with the needed tweaks) passed the test, rewind the
tree to the pristine state. Finally the "run" script can exit with
-the status of the real test to let "git bisect run" command loop to
-know the outcome.
+the status of the real test to let the "git bisect run" command loop to
+determine the outcome.
+
+EXAMPLES
+--------
+
+* Automatically bisect a broken build between v1.2 and HEAD:
++
+------------
+$ git bisect start HEAD v1.2 -- # HEAD is bad, v1.2 is good
+$ git bisect run make # "make" builds the app
+------------
+
+* Automatically bisect a test failure between origin and HEAD:
++
+------------
+$ git bisect start HEAD origin -- # HEAD is bad, origin is good
+$ git bisect run make test # "make test" builds and tests
+------------
+
+* Automatically bisect a broken test suite:
++
+------------
+$ cat ~/test.sh
+#!/bin/sh
+make || exit 125 # this "skip"s broken builds
+make test # "make test" runs the test suite
+$ git bisect start v1.3 v1.1 -- # v1.3 is bad, v1.1 is good
+$ git bisect run ~/test.sh
+------------
++
+Here we use a "test.sh" custom script. In this script, if "make"
+fails, we "skip" the current commit.
++
+It's safer to use a custom script outside the repo to prevent
+interactions between the bisect, make and test processes and the
+script.
++
+And "make test" should "exit 0", if the test suite passes, and
+"exit 1" (for example) otherwise.
+
+* Automatically bisect a broken test case:
++
+------------
+$ cat ~/test.sh
+#!/bin/sh
+make || exit 125 # this "skip"s broken builds
+~/check_test_case.sh # does the test case passes ?
+$ git bisect start HEAD HEAD~10 -- # culprit is among the last 10
+$ git bisect run ~/test.sh
+------------
++
+Here "check_test_case.sh" should "exit 0", if the test case passes,
+and "exit 1" (for example) otherwise.
++
+It's safer if both "test.sh" and "check_test_case.sh" scripts are
+outside the repo to prevent interactions between the bisect, make and
+test processes and the scripts.
+
+* Automatically bisect a broken test suite:
++
+------------
+$ git bisect start HEAD HEAD~10 -- # culprit is among the last 10
+$ git bisect run sh -c "make || exit 125; ~/check_test_case.sh"
+------------
++
+Does the same as the previous example, but on a single line.
Author
------
GIT
---
-Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite