65e73dba4a
... because we are now bisecting using a detached HEAD. Signed-off-by: Christian Couder <chriscool@tuxfamily.org> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
286 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
286 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
git-bisect(1)
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=============
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NAME
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----
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git-bisect - Find the change that introduced a bug by binary search
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SYNOPSIS
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--------
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'git bisect' <subcommand> <options>
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DESCRIPTION
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-----------
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The command takes various subcommands, and different options depending
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on the subcommand:
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git bisect help
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git bisect start [<bad> [<good>...]] [--] [<paths>...]
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git bisect bad [<rev>]
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git bisect good [<rev>...]
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git bisect skip [<rev>...]
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git bisect reset [<branch>]
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git bisect visualize
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git bisect replay <logfile>
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git bisect log
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git bisect run <cmd>...
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This command uses 'git-rev-list --bisect' option to help drive the
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binary search process to find which change introduced a bug, given an
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old "good" commit object name and a later "bad" commit object name.
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Getting help
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~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Use "git bisect" to get a short usage description, and "git bisect
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help" or "git bisect -h" to get a long usage description.
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Basic bisect commands: start, bad, good
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The way you use it is:
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------------------------------------------------
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$ git bisect start
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$ git bisect bad # Current version is bad
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$ git bisect good v2.6.13-rc2 # v2.6.13-rc2 was the last version
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# tested that was good
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------------------------------------------------
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When you give at least one bad and one good versions, it will bisect
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the revision tree and say something like:
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------------------------------------------------
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Bisecting: 675 revisions left to test after this
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------------------------------------------------
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and check out the state in the middle. Now, compile that kernel, and
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boot it. Now, let's say that this booted kernel works fine, then just
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do
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------------------------------------------------
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$ git bisect good # this one is good
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------------------------------------------------
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which will now say
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------------------------------------------------
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Bisecting: 337 revisions left to test after this
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------------------------------------------------
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and you continue along, compiling that one, testing it, and depending
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on whether it is good or bad, you say "git bisect good" or "git bisect
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bad", and ask for the next bisection.
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Until you have no more left, and you'll have been left with the first
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bad kernel rev in "refs/bisect/bad".
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Bisect reset
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~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Oh, and then after you want to reset to the original head, do a
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------------------------------------------------
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$ git bisect reset
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------------------------------------------------
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to get back to the original branch, instead of being on the bisection
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commit ("git bisect start" will do that for you too, actually: it will
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reset the bisection state).
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Bisect visualize
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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During the bisection process, you can say
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------------
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$ git bisect visualize
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------------
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to see the currently remaining suspects in `gitk`. `visualize` is a bit
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too long to type and `view` is provided as a synonym.
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If `DISPLAY` environment variable is not set, `git log` is used
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instead. You can even give command line options such as `-p` and
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`--stat`.
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------------
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$ git bisect view --stat
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------------
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Bisect log and bisect replay
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The good/bad input is logged, and
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------------
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$ git bisect log
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------------
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shows what you have done so far. You can truncate its output somewhere
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and save it in a file, and run
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------------
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$ git bisect replay that-file
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------------
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if you find later you made a mistake telling good/bad about a
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revision.
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Avoiding to test a commit
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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If in a middle of bisect session, you know what the bisect suggested
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to try next is not a good one to test (e.g. the change the commit
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introduces is known not to work in your environment and you know it
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does not have anything to do with the bug you are chasing), you may
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want to find a near-by commit and try that instead.
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It goes something like this:
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------------
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$ git bisect good/bad # previous round was good/bad.
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Bisecting: 337 revisions left to test after this
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$ git bisect visualize # oops, that is uninteresting.
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$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 # try 3 revs before what
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# was suggested
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------------
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Then compile and test the one you chose to try. After that, tell
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bisect what the result was as usual.
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Bisect skip
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~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Instead of choosing by yourself a nearby commit, you may just want git
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to do it for you using:
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------------
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$ git bisect skip # Current version cannot be tested
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------------
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But computing the commit to test may be slower afterwards and git may
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eventually not be able to tell the first bad among a bad and one or
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more "skip"ped commits.
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Cutting down bisection by giving more parameters to bisect start
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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You can further cut down the number of trials if you know what part of
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the tree is involved in the problem you are tracking down, by giving
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paths parameters when you say `bisect start`, like this:
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------------
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$ git bisect start -- arch/i386 include/asm-i386
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------------
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If you know beforehand more than one good commits, you can narrow the
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bisect space down without doing the whole tree checkout every time you
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give good commits. You give the bad revision immediately after `start`
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and then you give all the good revisions you have:
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------------
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$ git bisect start v2.6.20-rc6 v2.6.20-rc4 v2.6.20-rc1 --
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# v2.6.20-rc6 is bad
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# v2.6.20-rc4 and v2.6.20-rc1 are good
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------------
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Bisect run
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~~~~~~~~~~
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If you have a script that can tell if the current source code is good
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or bad, you can automatically bisect using:
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------------
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$ git bisect run my_script
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------------
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Note that the "run" script (`my_script` in the above example) should
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exit with code 0 in case the current source code is good. Exit with a
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code between 1 and 127 (inclusive), except 125, if the current
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source code is bad.
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Any other exit code will abort the automatic bisect process. (A
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program that does "exit(-1)" leaves $? = 255, see exit(3) manual page,
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the value is chopped with "& 0377".)
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The special exit code 125 should be used when the current source code
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cannot be tested. If the "run" script exits with this code, the current
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revision will be skipped, see `git bisect skip` above.
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You may often find that during bisect you want to have near-constant
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tweaks (e.g., s/#define DEBUG 0/#define DEBUG 1/ in a header file, or
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"revision that does not have this commit needs this patch applied to
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work around other problem this bisection is not interested in")
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applied to the revision being tested.
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To cope with such a situation, after the inner git-bisect finds the
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next revision to test, with the "run" script, you can apply that tweak
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before compiling, run the real test, and after the test decides if the
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revision (possibly with the needed tweaks) passed the test, rewind the
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tree to the pristine state. Finally the "run" script can exit with
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the status of the real test to let "git bisect run" command loop to
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know the outcome.
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EXAMPLES
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--------
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* Automatically bisect a broken build between v1.2 and HEAD:
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+
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------------
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$ git bisect start HEAD v1.2 -- # HEAD is bad, v1.2 is good
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$ git bisect run make # "make" builds the app
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------------
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* Automatically bisect a broken test suite:
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+
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------------
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$ cat ~/test.sh
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#!/bin/sh
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make || exit 125 # this "skip"s broken builds
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make test # "make test" runs the test suite
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$ git bisect start v1.3 v1.1 -- # v1.3 is bad, v1.1 is good
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$ git bisect run ~/test.sh
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------------
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+
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Here we use a "test.sh" custom script. In this script, if "make"
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fails, we "skip" the current commit.
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+
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It's safer to use a custom script outside the repo to prevent
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interactions between the bisect, make and test processes and the
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script.
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And "make test" should "exit 0", if the test suite passes, and
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"exit 1" (for example) otherwise.
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* Automatically bisect a broken test case:
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+
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------------
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$ cat ~/test.sh
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#!/bin/sh
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make || exit 125 # this "skip"s broken builds
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~/check_test_case.sh # does the test case passes ?
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$ git bisect start HEAD HEAD~10 -- # culprit is among the last 10
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$ git bisect run ~/test.sh
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------------
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+
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Here "check_test_case.sh" should "exit 0", if the test case passes,
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and "exit 1" (for example) otherwise.
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It's safer if both "test.sh" and "check_test_case.sh" scripts are
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outside the repo to prevent interactions between the bisect, make and
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test processes and the scripts.
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Author
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------
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Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
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Documentation
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-------------
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Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
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GIT
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---
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Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite
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