git bisect

Learn to find the bug commit with git bisect.

Introduction to git bisect

git bisect helps identify the commit that introduced a bug. Git uses binary search between a known working commit and a commit containing the bug. This narrows the search much faster than checking every commit individually.

git bisect start

During the search, Git asks you to inspect specific commits. By reporting each result, you can find the commit where the bug first appeared.

Starting a bisect search

First, start the search with git bisect start. Then identify a revision containing the bug and an older revision where the bug was not present. Git searches the commits between these two references.

git bisect start
git bisect bad
git bisect good HEAD~8

In this example, the current commit is bad, while the commit eight revisions earlier is known to work.

Exercise Start a bisect search and inspect a revision

Start a bisect search. Then run the command that displays the commit ID of the currently selected revision.

Show example solution

git bisect start
git rev-parse --short HEAD

Test yourself

Which method helps find the commit that introduced a bug with fewer checks?
- Binary search
- File comparison
- Branch merging
- Linear search
Show answer

Binary search — git bisect uses binary search to narrow the commit range at each step.
Start the bisect search
```
git ____
```
Show answer
```
git bisect start
```
Basic bisect concepts

git bisect

Searches for the bug-introducing commit
İkili arama

Narrows the range step by step
Bug

An incorrect behavior or issue
Commit aralığı

The set of revisions to inspect

Next lesson: good and bad

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