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COMP0233: Research Software Engineering With Python

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Debugging With Git Bisect

You can use

git bisect

to find out which commit caused a bug.

An example repository

In a nice open source example, I found an arbitrary exemplar on github

In [1]:
import os
top_dir = os.getcwd()
git_dir = os.path.join(top_dir, 'learning_git')
os.chdir(git_dir)
In [2]:
%%bash
rm -rf bisectdemo
git clone https://github.com/UCL-ARC-RSEing-with-Python/bisectdemo.git
Cloning into 'bisectdemo'...
In [3]:
bisect_dir=os.path.join(git_dir,'bisectdemo')
os.chdir(bisect_dir)
In [4]:
%%bash
python squares.py 2 # 4
4

This has been set up to break itself at a random commit, and leave you to use bisect to work out where it has broken:

In [5]:
%%bash
./breakme.sh > break_output
Switched to a new branch 'buggy'

Which will make a bunch of commits, of which one is broken, and leave you in the broken final state

In [6]:
%%bash
python squares.py 2 # Error message
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "squares.py", line 9, in <module>
    print(integer**2)
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for ** or pow(): 'str' and 'int'
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
CalledProcessError                        Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[6], line 1
----> 1 get_ipython().run_cell_magic('bash', '', 'python squares.py 2 #\xa0Error message\n')

File /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.8.18/x64/lib/python3.8/site-packages/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py:2478, in InteractiveShell.run_cell_magic(self, magic_name, line, cell)
   2476 with self.builtin_trap:
   2477     args = (magic_arg_s, cell)
-> 2478     result = fn(*args, **kwargs)
   2480 # The code below prevents the output from being displayed
   2481 # when using magics with decodator @output_can_be_silenced
   2482 # when the last Python token in the expression is a ';'.
   2483 if getattr(fn, magic.MAGIC_OUTPUT_CAN_BE_SILENCED, False):

File /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.8.18/x64/lib/python3.8/site-packages/IPython/core/magics/script.py:153, in ScriptMagics._make_script_magic.<locals>.named_script_magic(line, cell)
    151 else:
    152     line = script
--> 153 return self.shebang(line, cell)

File /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.8.18/x64/lib/python3.8/site-packages/IPython/core/magics/script.py:305, in ScriptMagics.shebang(self, line, cell)
    300 if args.raise_error and p.returncode != 0:
    301     # If we get here and p.returncode is still None, we must have
    302     # killed it but not yet seen its return code. We don't wait for it,
    303     # in case it's stuck in uninterruptible sleep. -9 = SIGKILL
    304     rc = p.returncode or -9
--> 305     raise CalledProcessError(rc, cell)

CalledProcessError: Command 'b'python squares.py 2 #\xc2\xa0Error message\n'' returned non-zero exit status 1.

Bisecting manually

In [7]:
%%bash
git bisect start
git bisect bad # We know the current state is broken
git switch main
git bisect good # We know the main branch state is OK
status: waiting for both good and bad commits
status: waiting for good commit(s), bad commit known
warning: you are switching branch while bisecting
Switched to branch 'main'
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/main'.
Bisecting: 500 revisions left to test after this (roughly 9 steps)
[656fce524c9f7feadf567685cd87903703df7f7c] Comment 499

Bisect needs one known good and one known bad commit to get started

Solving Manually

python squares.py 2 # 4
git bisect good
python squares.py 2 # 4
git bisect good
python squares.py 2 # 4
git bisect good
python squares.py 2 # Crash
git bisect bad
python squares.py 2 # Crash
git bisect bad
python squares.py 2 # Crash
git bisect bad
python squares.py 2 #Crash
git bisect bad
python squares.py 2 # 4
git bisect good
python squares.py 2 # 4
git bisect good
python squares.py 2 # 4
git bisect good

And eventually:

git bisect good
    Bisecting: 0 revisions left to test after this (roughly 0 steps)

python squares.py 2
    4

git bisect good
2777975a2334c2396ccb9faf98ab149824ec465b is the first bad commit
commit 2777975a2334c2396ccb9faf98ab149824ec465b
Author: Shawn Siefkas <shawn.siefkas@meredith.com>
Date:   Thu Nov 14 09:23:55 2013 -0600

    Breaking argument type

Stop the bisect process with:

git bisect reset

Solving automatically

If we have an appropriate unit test, we can do all this automatically:

(NOTE: You don't need to redirect the stderr and stdout (with &>) of git bisect run to a file when running these commands outside a jupyter notebook (i.e., on a shell). This is done here so the errors appears with the right commits)

In [8]:
%%bash
git bisect start
git bisect bad HEAD # We know the current state is broken
git bisect good main # We know main is good
git bisect run python squares.py 2 &> gitbisect.out
cat gitbisect.out
Previous HEAD position was 656fce5 Comment 499
Switched to branch 'buggy'
status: waiting for both good and bad commits
status: waiting for good commit(s), bad commit known
Bisecting: 500 revisions left to test after this (roughly 9 steps)
[656fce524c9f7feadf567685cd87903703df7f7c] Comment 499
running 'python' 'squares.py' '2'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "squares.py", line 9, in <module>
    print(integer**2)
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for ** or pow(): 'str' and 'int'
Bisecting: 249 revisions left to test after this (roughly 8 steps)
[99071fb2828e0517b2ff44c42d2840fa76188eea] Comment 249
running 'python' 'squares.py' '2'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "squares.py", line 9, in <module>
    print(integer**2)
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for ** or pow(): 'str' and 'int'
Bisecting: 124 revisions left to test after this (roughly 7 steps)
[be5692143a0457fdaf83c7d592f69b24e051553c] Comment 124
running 'python' 'squares.py' '2'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "squares.py", line 9, in <module>
    print(integer**2)
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for ** or pow(): 'str' and 'int'
Bisecting: 62 revisions left to test after this (roughly 6 steps)
[1411266a3a59c0de458403d1e1b56c5a96d32025] Comment 62
running 'python' 'squares.py' '2'
4
Bisecting: 31 revisions left to test after this (roughly 5 steps)
[6100d585bd46982a780fe786506fcd118c319abc] Comment 93
running 'python' 'squares.py' '2'
4
Bisecting: 15 revisions left to test after this (roughly 4 steps)
[99212b9e7d321d3dd8d8f0d021129b5abc8bee70] Comment 109
running 'python' 'squares.py' '2'
4
Bisecting: 7 revisions left to test after this (roughly 3 steps)
[6f15032ddfe4676d554356c082df0f6109dcef3c] Comment 116
running 'python' 'squares.py' '2'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "squares.py", line 9, in <module>
    print(integer**2)
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for ** or pow(): 'str' and 'int'
Bisecting: 3 revisions left to test after this (roughly 2 steps)
[9c24c5f3c1aa64a9dbc0a0b779ff4fa10682ed9a] Comment 113
running 'python' 'squares.py' '2'
4
Bisecting: 1 revision left to test after this (roughly 1 step)
[741330b4adba8fd6a3df9e934808a6f9b00666cc] Comment 114
running 'python' 'squares.py' '2'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "squares.py", line 9, in <module>
    print(integer**2)
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for ** or pow(): 'str' and 'int'
Bisecting: 0 revisions left to test after this (roughly 0 steps)
[a72e1916237ded16e8ebef7f0276da05d4bc54eb] Breaking argument type
running 'python' 'squares.py' '2'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "squares.py", line 9, in <module>
    print(integer**2)
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for ** or pow(): 'str' and 'int'
a72e1916237ded16e8ebef7f0276da05d4bc54eb is the first bad commit
commit a72e1916237ded16e8ebef7f0276da05d4bc54eb
Author: Shawn Siefkas <shawn.siefkas@meredith.com>
Date:   Thu Nov 14 09:23:55 2013 -0600

    Breaking argument type

 squares.py | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
bisect found first bad commit

Boom!