Re: [BUG] Git bisect extends bisecting range on repeated good/bad data

Maxim Kuvyrkov <maxim.kuvyrkov@linaro.org> writes:

It is not "repeated" that is an issue, but yes this is expected.

The bisection works by finding a mid point to cut the graph into two pieces of roughly the same size, and the graph is defined by the set of good commits on the bottom (i.e. "we were told that all these good commits were good, so there is no point going back the history beyond any of them") and the single "bad" commit you gave the last.

If you give 'bad' that is in the newer part of the history than the one that is already known to be bad, then you rewind that single "bad" commit, to force/allow the machinery to recompute the midpoint [*1*], and because the area to search would be wider when you do so, it is very much expected that you'd be offered to test more commits.

[Footnote]

*1* I said force/allow is because allowing the machinery to go back
    and recompute is a way to recover when you gave a "bad" earlier
    by mistake.