Tips on reproducing and bisecting bugs

Tips on reproducing and bisecting bugs

[Rens Oliemans]

Hi all,

Thanks for creating and maintaining Org mode, it's great. I tried helping out recently by
confirming and bisecting a reported bug
(https://list.orgmode.org/CAMJKaZz6sRDOxV6rhmdM97enhYsNTodtcTCZNn1ZbQUk3GH9Lw@mail.gmail.com/),
but am not sure if what I did was actually useful, and if so, how to do this more
efficiently.

I have the orgmode repo cloned, and build orgmode with `make && make vanilla`. When
bisecting, I manually navigate to and load the required init.el and reproduce the bug per
commit. It seems that parameters passed to `make vanilla` are not passed to emacs. Is this
how you would do it, or do you have tips to improve this workflow? Additionally, how could
I do this for different emacs versions?

If it wasn't all that useful, what can I do to improve this? I have a little bit of lisp
knowledge, but no experience with the orgmode source code (yet).

--
Thanks and best,
Rens

Re: Tips on reproducing and bisecting bugs

[Ihor Radchenko]

Rens Oliemans <hallo@rensoliemans.nl> writes:

> Thanks for creating and maintaining Org mode, it's great. I tried helping out recently by
> confirming and bisecting a reported bug
> (https://list.orgmode.org/CAMJKaZz6sRDOxV6rhmdM97enhYsNTodtcTCZNn1ZbQUk3GH9Lw@mail.gmail.com/),
> but am not sure if what I did was actually useful, and if so, how to do this more
> efficiently.

Thanks!
Confirming bug reports is always helpful.

Bisecting is also helpful, but usually requires more work that is not
always necessary - some bugs may be fixed very quickly, quicker than
the time needed to complete git bisect, using Elisp debugging tools.
We usually use bisecting as the last resort, when it is not clear what
is causing a particularly mysterious bug.

> I have the orgmode repo cloned, and build orgmode with `make && make vanilla`. When
> bisecting, I manually navigate to and load the required init.el and reproduce the bug per
> commit. It seems that parameters passed to `make vanilla` are not passed to emacs. Is this
> how you would do it, or do you have tips to improve this workflow? Additionally, how could
> I do this for different emacs versions?

You can use "make repro" command that, in addition to creating a clean
Emacs environment, sets up some debugging tools. See
https://orgmode.org/manual/Feedback.html#Feedback

I usually reproduce things using
make repro REPRO_ARGS="-l /path/to/init.el /path/to/bug.org" EMACS=/path/to/specific/emacs/version

> If it wasn't all that useful, what can I do to improve this? I have a little bit of lisp
> knowledge, but no experience with the orgmode source code (yet).

You may also check out https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contribute.html
And feel free to ask questions, if something is not clear.

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>