Explicitly mention how to bisect -next, as nothing in the kernel tree currently explains that bisects between -next versions won't work well and it's better to bisect between mainline and -next. Co-developed-by: Mark Brown <broonie@xxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Mark Brown <broonie@xxxxxxxxxx> Reviewed-by: Mark Brown <broonie@xxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Thorsten Leemhuis <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- v3 - add a optional 'that' for readability/understandability v2: - slightly change patch descption - make the text more how-toish to better match the rest of the document v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20241022-doc-bisect-next-v1-1-196c0a60d554@xxxxxxxxxx/ - initial release --- Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst index 585630d14581c7..f4f867cabb1778 100644 --- a/Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst @@ -108,6 +108,27 @@ a fully reliable and straight-forward way to reproduce the regression, too.* With that the process is complete. Now report the regression as described by Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst. +Bisecting linux-next +-------------------- + +If you face a problem only happening in linux-next, bisect between the +linux-next branches 'stable' and 'master'. The following commands will start +the process for a linux-next tree you added as a remote called 'next':: + + git bisect start + git bisect good next/stable + git bisect bad next/master + +The 'stable' branch refers to the state of linux-mainline that the current +linux-next release (found in the 'master' branch) is based on -- the former +thus should be free of any problems that show up in -next, but not in Linus' +tree. + +This will bisect across a wide range of changes, some of which you might have +used in earlier linux-next releases without problems. Sadly there is no simple +way to avoid checking them: bisecting from one linux-next release to a later +one (say between 'next-20241020' and 'next-20241021') is impossible, as they +share no common history. Additional reading material --------------------------- base-commit: 062d98be0e3f6dcf08e40a1101e967b2eb4fb92f -- 2.45.0