|
1 |
| -Bisecting a bug |
2 |
| -+++++++++++++++ |
| 1 | +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: (GPL-2.0+ OR CC-BY-4.0) |
| 2 | +.. [see the bottom of this file for redistribution information] |
3 | 3 |
|
4 |
| -Last updated: 28 October 2016 |
| 4 | +====================== |
| 5 | +Bisecting a regression |
| 6 | +====================== |
5 | 7 |
|
6 |
| -Introduction |
7 |
| -============ |
| 8 | +This document describes how to use a ``git bisect`` to find the source code |
| 9 | +change that broke something -- for example when some functionality stopped |
| 10 | +working after upgrading from Linux 6.0 to 6.1. |
8 | 11 |
|
9 |
| -Always try the latest kernel from kernel.org and build from source. If you are |
10 |
| -not confident in doing that please report the bug to your distribution vendor |
11 |
| -instead of to a kernel developer. |
| 12 | +The text focuses on the gist of the process. If you are new to bisecting the |
| 13 | +kernel, better follow Documentation/admin-guide/verify-bugs-and-bisect-regressions.rst |
| 14 | +instead: it depicts everything from start to finish while covering multiple |
| 15 | +aspects even kernel developers occasionally forget. This includes detecting |
| 16 | +situations early where a bisection would be a waste of time, as nobody would |
| 17 | +care about the result -- for example, because the problem happens after the |
| 18 | +kernel marked itself as 'tainted', occurs in an abandoned version, was already |
| 19 | +fixed, or is caused by a .config change you or your Linux distributor performed. |
12 | 20 |
|
13 |
| -Finding bugs is not always easy. Have a go though. If you can't find it don't |
14 |
| -give up. Report as much as you have found to the relevant maintainer. See |
15 |
| -MAINTAINERS for who that is for the subsystem you have worked on. |
| 21 | +Finding the change causing a kernel issue using a bisection |
| 22 | +=========================================================== |
16 | 23 |
|
17 |
| -Before you submit a bug report read |
18 |
| -'Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst'. |
| 24 | +*Note: the following process assumes you prepared everything for a bisection. |
| 25 | +This includes having a Git clone with the appropriate sources, installing the |
| 26 | +software required to build and install kernels, as well as a .config file stored |
| 27 | +in a safe place (the following example assumes '~/prepared_kernel_.config') to |
| 28 | +use as pristine base at each bisection step; ideally, you have also worked out |
| 29 | +a fully reliable and straight-forward way to reproduce the regression, too.* |
19 | 30 |
|
20 |
| -Devices not appearing |
21 |
| -===================== |
22 |
| - |
23 |
| -Often this is caused by udev/systemd. Check that first before blaming it |
24 |
| -on the kernel. |
25 |
| - |
26 |
| -Finding patch that caused a bug |
27 |
| -=============================== |
28 |
| - |
29 |
| -Using the provided tools with ``git`` makes finding bugs easy provided the bug |
30 |
| -is reproducible. |
31 |
| - |
32 |
| -Steps to do it: |
33 |
| - |
34 |
| -- build the Kernel from its git source |
35 |
| -- start bisect with [#f1]_:: |
36 |
| - |
37 |
| - $ git bisect start |
38 |
| - |
39 |
| -- mark the broken changeset with:: |
40 |
| - |
41 |
| - $ git bisect bad [commit] |
42 |
| - |
43 |
| -- mark a changeset where the code is known to work with:: |
44 |
| - |
45 |
| - $ git bisect good [commit] |
46 |
| - |
47 |
| -- rebuild the Kernel and test |
48 |
| -- interact with git bisect by using either:: |
49 |
| - |
50 |
| - $ git bisect good |
51 |
| - |
52 |
| - or:: |
53 |
| - |
54 |
| - $ git bisect bad |
55 |
| - |
56 |
| - depending if the bug happened on the changeset you're testing |
57 |
| -- After some interactions, git bisect will give you the changeset that |
58 |
| - likely caused the bug. |
59 |
| - |
60 |
| -- For example, if you know that the current version is bad, and version |
61 |
| - 4.8 is good, you could do:: |
62 |
| - |
63 |
| - $ git bisect start |
64 |
| - $ git bisect bad # Current version is bad |
65 |
| - $ git bisect good v4.8 |
66 |
| - |
67 |
| - |
68 |
| -.. [#f1] You can, optionally, provide both good and bad arguments at git |
69 |
| - start with ``git bisect start [BAD] [GOOD]`` |
70 |
| -
|
71 |
| -For further references, please read: |
72 |
| - |
73 |
| -- The man page for ``git-bisect`` |
74 |
| -- `Fighting regressions with git bisect <https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-bisect-lk2009.html>`_ |
75 |
| -- `Fully automated bisecting with "git bisect run" <https://lwn.net/Articles/317154>`_ |
76 |
| -- `Using Git bisect to figure out when brokenness was introduced <http://webchick.net/node/99>`_ |
| 31 | +* Preparation: start the bisection and tell Git about the points in the history |
| 32 | + you consider to be working and broken, which Git calls 'good' and 'bad':: |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | + git bisect start |
| 35 | + git bisect good v6.0 |
| 36 | + git bisect bad v6.1 |
| 37 | + |
| 38 | + Instead of Git tags like 'v6.0' and 'v6.1' you can specify commit-ids, too. |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +1. Copy your prepared .config into the build directory and adjust it to the |
| 41 | + needs of the codebase Git checked out for testing:: |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | + cp ~/prepared_kernel_.config .config |
| 44 | + make olddefconfig |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +2. Now build, install, and boot a kernel. This might fail for unrelated reasons, |
| 47 | + for example, when a compile error happens at the current stage of the |
| 48 | + bisection a later change resolves. In such cases run ``git bisect skip`` and |
| 49 | + go back to step 1. |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +3. Check if the functionality that regressed works in the kernel you just built. |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | + If it works, execute:: |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | + git bisect good |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | + If it is broken, run:: |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | + git bisect bad |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | + Note, getting this wrong just once will send the rest of the bisection |
| 62 | + totally off course. To prevent having to start anew later you thus want to |
| 63 | + ensure what you tell Git is correct; it is thus often wise to spend a few |
| 64 | + minutes more on testing in case your reproducer is unreliable. |
| 65 | + |
| 66 | + After issuing one of these two commands, Git will usually check out another |
| 67 | + bisection point and print something like 'Bisecting: 675 revisions left to |
| 68 | + test after this (roughly 10 steps)'. In that case go back to step 1. |
| 69 | + |
| 70 | + If Git instead prints something like 'cafecaca0c0dacafecaca0c0dacafecaca0c0da |
| 71 | + is the first bad commit', then you have finished the bisection. In that case |
| 72 | + move to the next point below. Note, right after displaying that line Git will |
| 73 | + show some details about the culprit including its patch description; this can |
| 74 | + easily fill your terminal, so you might need to scroll up to see the message |
| 75 | + mentioning the culprit's commit-id. |
| 76 | + |
| 77 | + In case you missed Git's output, you can always run ``git bisect log`` to |
| 78 | + print the status: it will show how many steps remain or mention the result of |
| 79 | + the bisection. |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | +* Recommended complementary task: put the bisection log and the current .config |
| 82 | + file aside for the bug report; furthermore tell Git to reset the sources to |
| 83 | + the state before the bisection:: |
| 84 | + |
| 85 | + git bisect log > ~/bisection-log |
| 86 | + cp .config ~/bisection-config-culprit |
| 87 | + git bisect reset |
| 88 | + |
| 89 | +* Recommended optional task: try reverting the culprit on top of the latest |
| 90 | + codebase and check if that fixes your bug; if that is the case, it validates |
| 91 | + the bisection and enables developers to resolve the regression through a |
| 92 | + revert. |
| 93 | + |
| 94 | + To try this, update your clone and check out latest mainline. Then tell Git |
| 95 | + to revert the change by specifying its commit-id:: |
| 96 | + |
| 97 | + git revert --no-edit cafec0cacaca0 |
| 98 | + |
| 99 | + Git might reject this, for example when the bisection landed on a merge |
| 100 | + commit. In that case, abandon the attempt. Do the same, if Git fails to revert |
| 101 | + the culprit on its own because later changes depend on it -- at least unless |
| 102 | + you bisected a stable or longterm kernel series, in which case you want to |
| 103 | + check out its latest codebase and try a revert there. |
| 104 | + |
| 105 | + If a revert succeeds, build and test another kernel to check if reverting |
| 106 | + resolved your regression. |
| 107 | + |
| 108 | +With that the process is complete. Now report the regression as described by |
| 109 | +Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst. |
| 110 | + |
| 111 | + |
| 112 | +Additional reading material |
| 113 | +--------------------------- |
| 114 | + |
| 115 | +* The `man page for 'git bisect' <https://git-scm.com/docs/git-bisect>`_ and |
| 116 | + `fighting regressions with 'git bisect' <https://git-scm.com/docs/git-bisect-lk2009.html>`_ |
| 117 | + in the Git documentation. |
| 118 | +* `Working with git bisect <https://nathanchance.dev/posts/working-with-git-bisect/>`_ |
| 119 | + from kernel developer Nathan Chancellor. |
| 120 | +* `Using Git bisect to figure out when brokenness was introduced <http://webchick.net/node/99>`_. |
| 121 | +* `Fully automated bisecting with 'git bisect run' <https://lwn.net/Articles/317154>`_. |
| 122 | + |
| 123 | +.. |
| 124 | + end-of-content |
| 125 | +.. |
| 126 | + This document is maintained by Thorsten Leemhuis <[email protected]>. If |
| 127 | + you spot a typo or small mistake, feel free to let him know directly and |
| 128 | + he'll fix it. You are free to do the same in a mostly informal way if you |
| 129 | + want to contribute changes to the text -- but for copyright reasons please CC |
| 130 | + [email protected] and 'sign-off' your contribution as |
| 131 | + Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst explains in the section 'Sign |
| 132 | + your work - the Developer's Certificate of Origin'. |
| 133 | +.. |
| 134 | + This text is available under GPL-2.0+ or CC-BY-4.0, as stated at the top |
| 135 | + of the file. If you want to distribute this text under CC-BY-4.0 only, |
| 136 | + please use 'The Linux kernel development community' for author attribution |
| 137 | + and link this as source: |
| 138 | + https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/plain/Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst |
| 139 | +
|
| 140 | +.. |
| 141 | + Note: Only the content of this RST file as found in the Linux kernel sources |
| 142 | + is available under CC-BY-4.0, as versions of this text that were processed |
| 143 | + (for example by the kernel's build system) might contain content taken from |
| 144 | + files which use a more restrictive license. |
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