NAME
----
-git-bisect - Find by binary search the change that introduced a bug
+git-bisect - Use binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug
SYNOPSIS
The command takes various subcommands, and different options depending
on the subcommand:
- git bisect help
git bisect start [--no-checkout] [<bad> [<good>...]] [--] [<paths>...]
git bisect bad [<rev>]
git bisect good [<rev>...]
git bisect replay <logfile>
git bisect log
git bisect run <cmd>...
+ git bisect help
-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.
+This command uses a binary search algorithm to find which commit in
+your project's history introduced a bug. You use it by first telling
+it a "bad" commit that is known to contain the bug, and a "good"
+commit that is known to be before the bug was introduced. Then `git
+bisect` picks a commit between those two endpoints and asks you
+whether the selected commit is "good" or "bad". It continues narrowing
+down the range until it finds the exact commit that introduced the
+change.
Basic bisect commands: start, bad, good
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Using the Linux kernel tree as an example, basic use of the bisect
-command is as follows:
+As an example, suppose you are trying to find the commit that broke a
+feature that was known to work in version `v2.6.13-rc2` of your
+project. You start a bisect session as follows:
------------------------------------------------
$ git bisect start
$ git bisect bad # Current version is bad
-$ git bisect good v2.6.13-rc2 # v2.6.13-rc2 was the last version
- # tested that was good
+$ git bisect good v2.6.13-rc2 # v2.6.13-rc2 is known to be good
------------------------------------------------
-When you have specified at least one bad and one good version, the
-command bisects the revision tree and outputs something similar to
-the following:
+Once you have specified at least one bad and one good commit, `git
+bisect` selects a commit in the middle of that range of history,
+checks it out, and outputs something similar to the following:
------------------------------------------------
-Bisecting: 675 revisions left to test after this
+Bisecting: 675 revisions left to test after this (roughly 10 steps)
------------------------------------------------
-The state in the middle of the set of revisions is then checked out.
-You would now compile that kernel and boot it. If the booted kernel
-works correctly, you would then issue the following command:
+You should now compile the checked-out version and test it. If that
+version works correctly, type
------------------------------------------------
-$ git bisect good # this one is good
+$ git bisect good
------------------------------------------------
-The output of this command would be something similar to the following:
+If that version is broken, type
------------------------------------------------
-Bisecting: 337 revisions left to test after this
+$ git bisect bad
------------------------------------------------
-You keep repeating this process, compiling the tree, testing it, and
-depending on whether it is good or bad issuing the command "git bisect good"
-or "git bisect bad" to ask for the next bisection.
+Then `git bisect` will respond with something like
+
+------------------------------------------------
+Bisecting: 337 revisions left to test after this (roughly 9 steps)
+------------------------------------------------
+
+Keep repeating the process: compile the tree, test it, and depending
+on whether it is good or bad run `git bisect good` or `git bisect bad`
+to ask for the next commit that needs testing.
+
+Eventually there will be no more revisions left to inspect, and the
+command will print out a description of the first bad commit. The
+reference `refs/bisect/bad` will be left pointing at that commit.
-Eventually there will be no more revisions left to bisect, and you
-will have been left with the first bad kernel revision in "refs/bisect/bad".
Bisect reset
~~~~~~~~~~~~
After a bisect session, to clean up the bisection state and return to
-the original HEAD (i.e., to quit bisecting), issue the following command:
+the original HEAD, issue the following command:
------------------------------------------------
$ git bisect reset
$ git bisect reset <commit>
------------------------------------------------
-For example, `git bisect reset HEAD` will leave you on the current
-bisection commit and avoid switching commits at all, while `git bisect
-reset bisect/bad` will check out the first bad revision.
+For example, `git bisect reset bisect/bad` will check out the first
+bad revision, while `git bisect reset HEAD` will leave you on the
+current bisection commit and avoid switching commits at all.
+
Bisect visualize
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
`view` may also be used as a synonym for `visualize`.
If the 'DISPLAY' environment variable is not set, 'git log' is used
-instead. You can also give command line options such as `-p` and
+instead. You can also give command-line options such as `-p` and
`--stat`.
------------
Avoiding testing a commit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-If, in the middle of a bisect session, you know that the next suggested
-revision is not a good one to test (e.g. the change the commit
-introduces is known not to work in your environment and you know it
-does not have anything to do with the bug you are chasing), you may
-want to find a nearby commit and try that instead.
+If, in the middle of a bisect session, you know that the suggested
+revision is not a good one to test (e.g. it fails to build and you
+know that the failure does not have anything to do with the bug you
+are chasing), you can manually select a nearby commit and test that
+one instead.
For example:
------------
$ git bisect good/bad # previous round was good or bad.
-Bisecting: 337 revisions left to test after this
+Bisecting: 337 revisions left to test after this (roughly 9 steps)
$ git bisect visualize # oops, that is uninteresting.
$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 # try 3 revisions before what
# was suggested
the revision as good or bad in the usual manner.
Bisect skip
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~
-Instead of choosing by yourself a nearby commit, you can ask Git
-to do it for you by issuing the command:
+Instead of choosing a nearby commit by yourself, you can ask Git to do
+it for you by issuing the command:
------------
$ git bisect skip # Current version cannot be tested
------------
-But Git may eventually be unable to tell the first bad commit among
-a bad commit and one or more skipped commits.
+However, if you skip a commit adjacent to the one you are looking for,
+Git will be unable to tell exactly which of those commits was the
+first bad one.
-You can even skip a range of commits, instead of just one commit,
-using the "'<commit1>'..'<commit2>'" notation. For example:
+You can also skip a range of commits, instead of just one commit,
+using range notation. For example:
------------
$ git bisect skip v2.5..v2.6
$ git bisect skip v2.5 v2.5..v2.6
------------
-This tells the bisect process that the commits between `v2.5` included
-and `v2.6` included should be skipped.
+This tells the bisect process that the commits between `v2.5` and
+`v2.6` (inclusive) should be skipped.
Cutting down bisection by giving more parameters to bisect start
$ git bisect run my_script arguments
------------
-Note that the script (`my_script` in the above example) should
-exit with code 0 if the current source code is good, and exit with a
-code between 1 and 127 (inclusive), except 125, if the current
-source code is bad.
+Note that the script (`my_script` in the above example) should exit
+with code 0 if the current source code is good/old, and exit with a
+code between 1 and 127 (inclusive), except 125, if the current source
+code is bad/new.
Any other exit code will abort the bisect process. It should be noted
-that a program that terminates via "exit(-1)" leaves $? = 255, (see the
-exit(3) manual page), as the value is chopped with "& 0377".
+that a program that terminates via `exit(-1)` leaves $? = 255, (see the
+exit(3) manual page), as the value is chopped with `& 0377`.
The special exit code 125 should be used when the current source code
cannot be tested. If the script exits with this code, the current
revision will be skipped (see `git bisect skip` above). 125 was chosen
as the highest sensible value to use for this purpose, because 126 and 127
are used by POSIX shells to signal specific error status (127 is for
-command not found, 126 is for command found but not executable---these
+command not found, 126 is for command found but not executable--these
details do not matter, as they are normal errors in the script, as far as
-"bisect run" is concerned).
+`bisect run` is concerned).
You may often find that during a bisect session you want to have
temporary modifications (e.g. s/#define DEBUG 0/#define DEBUG 1/ in a
before compiling, run the real test, and afterwards decide if the
revision (possibly with the needed patch) passed the test and then
rewind the tree to the pristine state. Finally the script should exit
-with the status of the real test to let the "git bisect run" command loop
+with the status of the real test to let the `git bisect run` command loop
determine the eventual outcome of the bisect session.
OPTIONS
$ git bisect reset # quit the bisect session
------------
+
-Here we use a "test.sh" custom script. In this script, if "make"
+Here we use a `test.sh` custom script. In this script, if `make`
fails, we skip the current commit.
-"check_test_case.sh" should "exit 0" if the test case passes,
-and "exit 1" otherwise.
+`check_test_case.sh` should `exit 0` if the test case passes,
+and `exit 1` otherwise.
+
-It is safer if both "test.sh" and "check_test_case.sh" are
+It is safer if both `test.sh` and `check_test_case.sh` are
outside the repository to prevent interactions between the bisect,
make and test processes and the scripts.
has at least one parent whose reachable graph is fully traversable in the sense
required by 'git pack objects'.
+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.
SEE ALSO
--------