Re: current git kernel has strange problems during bisect

From: Andreas Bombe <andreas.bombe@mytum.de>
Date: Jan 15, 2009, 16:54 UTC
Message-ID: <20090115165425.GA7517@bombe-desk.opditex>
In-Reply-To: <f73f7ab80901131226s6af7730cucf9c44bc2b4f9545@mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 03:26:09PM -0500, Kyle Moffett wrote:

Show 17 quoted lines

> On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 4:39 PM, Christian Borntraeger
> <borntraeger@de.ibm.com> wrote:
> > In my opinion we should really avoid subtree merges in the future as a curtesy
> > to people who do the uncool work of testing, problem tracking and bisecting.
> > </rant>
> 
> As an alternative, you can relatively easily rewrite the following
> independent histories:
> 
> A -- B -- C
> X -- Y -- Z
> 
> To look like this:
> 
> A -- B -- C -- X' -- Y' -- Z'
> 
> Where X' is (C + sub/dir/X), Y' is (C + sub/dir/Y), etc...

Given that the subtree may have been in development for a long time, it is almost a certainty that the older commits may compile on A but not on C. By basing it all on C you create a lot of uncompilable commits which hurt bisection just as bad. At least with missing kernel sources it is obvious that an attempt at compilation is futile and a waste of time.