Git Bisect

[John Emmas (johne53)]

Over the years I've tended to avoid git bisect and here's why... for the sake of argument let's assume that the last known good line was 64 lines down from the topmost line. Obviously the first bisect will land on line 32.

But let's assume that a programmer added a new feature but it needed to get added over four commits - so the first commit was at line 33 but the feature wasn't buildable until line 30. Obviously that git bisect has landed right in the middle (i.e. when the code isn't buildable).

And that's the problem... git bisect comes with an inherent assumption that the code will be buildable at every line. What's needed is a way I could say *move this bisect down to line 34" (or "up to line 29")

Is there such a feature and I've managed to not notice it all these years? Or is git bisect basically useless??

[John Emmas (johne53)]

BTW - when I refer to "lines" (above) I'm referring to lines in the TortoiseGit log window - not lines in the software.

[John Emmas (johne53)]

Does nobody think this would be a worthwhile feature?

[John Emmas (johne53)]

I just got told about something called git bisect skip which is apparently specifically for this purpose. I'd never heard of it before so is it supported in TortoiseGit (and where?)

[Sven Strickroth]

Hi,

Am 21.03.2026 um 17:06 schrieb John Emmas (johne53):
> I just got told about something called *git bisect skip *which is

> apparently specifically for this purpose. I'd never heard of it before
> so is it supported in TortoiseGit (and where?)

In the TortoiseGit context menu you in explorer can select "Bisect Skip"
or you can use the log dialog to (force) reset to an abritrary revision
or select "Bisect skip" in the context menu of a revision there.

--
Best regards,
Sven Strickroth
PGP key id F5A9D4C4 @ any key-server

[John Emmas (johne53)]

Thanks Sven - I might be looking in the wrong place but is the context menu the one with options for Pull / Push / Fetch etc?

I can see an option there called 'Bisect' but I can't see 'Bisect Skip' (unless it's only visible after I use 'Bisect' ?)

[John Emmas (johne53)]

Yes I just found it (it's only visible after using 'Git Bisect')