NAME

       svn-bisect - Bisect Subversion revisions to find a regression

SYNOPSIS

       svn-bisect start [good_rev [bad_rev]]

       svn-bisect {good|bad} [rev]

       svn-bisect run command

       svn-bisect reset

       svn-bisect status

DESCRIPTION

       svn-bisect  helps  to  automate  finding a bug or behavior change in a Subversion working copy.  Given an
       initial “good” revision, with the desired or original behavior, and a  newer  “bad”  revision,  with  the
       undesired  or  modified  behavior,  svn-bisect will do a binary search through the revision range to find
       which revision caused the change.

       svn-bisect must be initialized in a working copy, with svn-bisect start.  It also needs to  be  given  at
       least one good revision (the baseline) and one bad revision (known modified behavior) revision.

       Sub-commands:

       start  Initializes or reinitializes svn-bisect; optionally takes good and bad revision parameters.

       good rev

       bad rev
              Tells  svn-bisect  that a revision is good or bad, defining or narrowing the search space.  If not
              specified, revision defaults to the current revision in the working copy.   svn-bisect  will  then
              update  to  a  revision halfway between the new good and bad boundaries.  If this update crosses a
              point where a branch was created, it switches in or out of the branch.

       reset  Resets the working copy to the revision and branch where svn-bisect start was run.  In the  simple
              case  this is equivalent to rm -r .svn-bisect; svn update, but not if it has crossed branches, and
              not if you did not start at the HEAD revision.  In any  case,  svn-bisect  never  keeps  track  of
              mixed-revision  working  copies,  so  do not use svn-bisect in a working copy that will need to be
              restored to mixed revisions.

       status Prints a brief status message.

       run command
              Runs the bisection in a loop.  You must  have  already  defined  initial  good  and  bad  boundary
              conditions.   Each  iteration through the loop runs command as a shell command (a single argument,
              quoted if necessary) on the chosen revision, then marks the revision as good or bad, based on  the
              exit status of command.

EXAMPLES

       Assume you are trying to find which revision between 1250 and 1400 caused the make check command to fail.

           svn-bisect start 1250 1400
           svn-bisect run 'make check'
           svn-bisect reset

ENVIRONMENT

       SVN    The Subversion command-line program to call (default svn).

FILES

       .svn-bisect
              The directory containing state information, removed after a successful bisection.

SEE ALSO

       git-bisect(1).

AUTHOR

       Written by Robert Millan and Peter Samuelson, for the Debian Project (but may be used by others).

                                                   2009-10-22                                      SVN-BISECT(1)