Git-bisect instructions

After reading a little bit of a long thread on testing Bugs for the linux kernel, there was a small HOWTO for running bissects of the linux kernel.

I write it again here in order to make sure, it is easier to find:

# install git

# clone Linus' tree:
git clone \
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git

# start bisecting:
cd linux-2.6
git bisect start
git bisect bad v2.6.21
git bisect good v2.6.20
cp /path/to/.config .
# start a round
make oldconfig
make
# install kernel, check whether it's good or bad, then:
git bisect [bad|good]
# start next round
After at about 10-15 reboots you'll have found the guilty commit
("... is first bad commit").
More information on git bisecting:
man git-bisect

But this is not all... The bisection as means of automatically checking whether a given tests works or not. Suppose you have a script to run a test called: test.sh. Then you could call for the bisection:

$ git bisect start v1.3 v1.1 -- # v1.3 is bad, v1.1 is good
$ git bisect run ~/test.sh

For more information on this a good explanation is found at this page.

Moreover, there is also the possibility to restrict the search for versions which are good or bad which had a change in a given part of the repository. For example, you may know that the bug is found in a certain subdirectories. Then you can specify these directories:

$ git bisect start -- mydirectory1 mydirectory2/directory3