bisect: introduce first-parent flag

Upon seeing a merge commit when bisecting, this option may be used to
follow only the first parent.

In detecting regressions introduced through the merging of a branch, the
merge commit will be identified as introduction of the bug and its
ancestors will be ignored.

This option is particularly useful in avoiding false positives when a
merged branch contained broken or non-buildable commits, but the merge
itself was OK.

Signed-off-by: Aaron Lipman <alipman88@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Documentation/git-bisect.txt

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ The command takes various subcommands, and different options depending
 on the subcommand:
 
  git bisect start [--term-{old,good}=<term> --term-{new,bad}=<term>]
-		  [--no-checkout] [<bad> [<good>...]] [--] [<paths>...]
+		  [--no-checkout] [--first-parent] [<bad> [<good>...]] [--] [<paths>...]
  git bisect (bad|new|<term-new>) [<rev>]
  git bisect (good|old|<term-old>) [<rev>...]
  git bisect terms [--term-good | --term-bad]
@@ -365,6 +365,17 @@ does not require a checked out tree.
 +
 If the repository is bare, `--no-checkout` is assumed.
 
+--first-parent::
++
+Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge commit.
++
+In detecting regressions introduced through the merging of a branch, the merge
+commit will be identified as introduction of the bug and its ancestors will be
+ignored.
++
+This option is particularly useful in avoiding false positives when a merged
+branch contained broken or non-buildable commits, but the merge itself was OK.
+
 EXAMPLES
 --------
 

bisect.c

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 #include "commit-slab.h"
 #include "commit-reach.h"
 #include "object-store.h"
+#include "dir.h"
 
 static struct oid_array good_revs;
 static struct oid_array skipped_revs;
@@ -460,6 +461,7 @@ static GIT_PATH_FUNC(git_path_bisect_run, "BISECT_RUN")
 static GIT_PATH_FUNC(git_path_bisect_start, "BISECT_START")
 static GIT_PATH_FUNC(git_path_bisect_log, "BISECT_LOG")
 static GIT_PATH_FUNC(git_path_bisect_terms, "BISECT_TERMS")
+static GIT_PATH_FUNC(git_path_bisect_first_parent, "BISECT_FIRST_PARENT")
 static GIT_PATH_FUNC(git_path_head_name, "head-name")
 
 static void read_bisect_paths(struct argv_array *array)
@@ -998,7 +1000,7 @@ enum bisect_error bisect_next_all(struct repository *r, const char *prefix)
 	struct object_id *bisect_rev;
 	char *steps_msg;
 	int no_checkout = ref_exists("BISECT_HEAD");
-	int first_parent_only = 0; /* TODO: pass --first-parent flag from git bisect start */
+	int first_parent_only = file_exists(git_path_bisect_first_parent());
 
 	read_bisect_terms(&term_bad, &term_good);
 	if (read_bisect_refs())
@@ -1142,6 +1144,7 @@ int bisect_clean_state(void)
 	unlink_or_warn(git_path_bisect_names());
 	unlink_or_warn(git_path_bisect_run());
 	unlink_or_warn(git_path_bisect_terms());
+	unlink_or_warn(git_path_bisect_first_parent());
 	/* Cleanup head-name if it got left by an old version of git-bisect */
 	unlink_or_warn(git_path_head_name());
 	/*

builtin/bisect--helper.c

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ static GIT_PATH_FUNC(git_path_bisect_head, "BISECT_HEAD")
 static GIT_PATH_FUNC(git_path_bisect_log, "BISECT_LOG")
 static GIT_PATH_FUNC(git_path_head_name, "head-name")
 static GIT_PATH_FUNC(git_path_bisect_names, "BISECT_NAMES")
+static GIT_PATH_FUNC(git_path_bisect_first_parent, "BISECT_FIRST_PARENT")
 
 static const char * const git_bisect_helper_usage[] = {
 	N_("git bisect--helper --next-all"),
@@ -28,7 +29,7 @@ static const char * const git_bisect_helper_usage[] = {
 	N_("git bisect--helper --bisect-next-check <good_term> <bad_term> [<term>]"),
 	N_("git bisect--helper --bisect-terms [--term-good | --term-old | --term-bad | --term-new]"),
 	N_("git bisect--helper --bisect-start [--term-{old,good}=<term> --term-{new,bad}=<term>]"
-					     "[--no-checkout] [<bad> [<good>...]] [--] [<paths>...]"),
+					    " [--no-checkout] [--first-parent] [<bad> [<good>...]] [--] [<paths>...]"),
 	NULL
 };
 
@@ -424,6 +425,7 @@ finish:
 static int bisect_start(struct bisect_terms *terms, const char **argv, int argc)
 {
 	int no_checkout = 0;
+	int first_parent_only = 0;
 	int i, has_double_dash = 0, must_write_terms = 0, bad_seen = 0;
 	int flags, pathspec_pos, res = 0;
 	struct string_list revs = STRING_LIST_INIT_DUP;
@@ -453,6 +455,8 @@ static int bisect_start(struct bisect_terms *terms, const char **argv, int argc)
 			break;
 		} else if (!strcmp(arg, "--no-checkout")) {
 			no_checkout = 1;
+		} else if (!strcmp(arg, "--first-parent")) {
+			first_parent_only = 1;
 		} else if (!strcmp(arg, "--term-good") ||
 			 !strcmp(arg, "--term-old")) {
 			i++;
@@ -577,6 +581,9 @@ static int bisect_start(struct bisect_terms *terms, const char **argv, int argc)
 	 */
 	write_file(git_path_bisect_start(), "%s\n", start_head.buf);
 
+	if (first_parent_only)
+		write_file(git_path_bisect_first_parent(), "\n");
+
 	if (no_checkout) {
 		if (get_oid(start_head.buf, &oid) < 0) {
 			res = error(_("invalid ref: '%s'"), start_head.buf);

t/t6030-bisect-porcelain.sh

@@ -448,6 +448,24 @@ test_expect_success 'many merge bases creation' '
 	grep "$SIDE_HASH5" merge_bases.txt
 '
 
+# We want to automatically find the merge that
+# added "line" into hello.
+test_expect_success '"git bisect run --first-parent" simple case' '
+	git rev-list --first-parent $B_HASH ^$HASH4 >first_parent_chain.txt &&
+	write_script test_script.sh <<-\EOF &&
+	grep $(git rev-parse HEAD) first_parent_chain.txt || exit -1
+	! grep line hello >/dev/null
+	EOF
+	git bisect start --first-parent &&
+	test_path_is_file ".git/BISECT_FIRST_PARENT" &&
+	git bisect good $HASH4 &&
+	git bisect bad $B_HASH &&
+	git bisect run ./test_script.sh >my_bisect_log.txt &&
+	grep "$B_HASH is the first bad commit" my_bisect_log.txt &&
+	git bisect reset &&
+	test_path_is_missing .git/BISECT_FIRST_PARENT
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'good merge bases when good and bad are siblings' '
 	git bisect start "$B_HASH" "$A_HASH" > my_bisect_log.txt &&
 	test_i18ngrep "merge base must be tested" my_bisect_log.txt &&