Re: git-bisect problem

[Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>]

On Mon, 13 Feb 2006, Andrew Morton wrote:
> 
> The bug is in Jeff's tree only
> (git+ssh://master.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jgarzik/netdev-2.6.git#ALL)
> so I wanted to perform the bisection on the git-netdev-all branch.

Actually, what you should do, is not play any games at all, but just tell 
"git bisect" what the problem is. It will do the right thing.

So in this case, what you do is _literally_ to

	# fetch Jeff's tree (you obviously had this already, but I just 
	# want to point it out as a "name that branch" thing)
	git fetch netdev-all

	# we know that that tree is broken
	git bisect start
	git bisect bad netdev-all

	# We know that Linus' top-of-tree doesn't have the bug
	git bisect good origin

and off you go. It absolutely magically does the right thing, and will 
bisect stuff that is only in the netdev branch and not in my tree. No 
guessing necessary, no need to try to figure out what the differences are. 
git will do it all for you.

And notice how it will work perfectly well, even if the two points you 
have tested AREN'T EVEN DIRECTLY RELATED! The "good" and "bad" points do 
not have to have any direct relationship other than a common parent 
_somewhere_. "git bisect" really is that good.

(The above is obviously assuming that "origin" is set to my tree, 
self-aggrandizing bastard that I am, and that you've set up a 
.git/remotes/netdev-all file pointing to Jeff's tree - your setup may vary 
from this, so you'd have to change the lines to match)

			Linus