Subject: [PATCH] bisect: fix handling of `help` and invalid subcommands

From: "Ruoyu Zhong via GitGitGadget" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2025 08:36:13 +0000

From: Ruoyu Zhong <[email-masked]>

As documented in git-bisect(1), `git bisect help` should display usage
information. However, since the migration of `git bisect` to a full
builtin command in 73fce29427 (Turn `git bisect` into a full built-in,
2022-11-10), this behavior was broken. Running `git bisect help` would,
instead of showing usage, either fail silently if already in a bisect
session, or otherwise trigger an interactive autostart prompt asking "Do
you want me to do it for you [Y/n]?".

Similarly, since df63421be9 (bisect--helper: handle states directly,
2022-11-10), running invalid subcommands like `git bisect foobar` also
led to the same behavior.

This occurred because `help` and other unrecognized subcommands were
being unconditionally passed to `bisect_state`, which then called
`bisect_autostart`, triggering the interactive prompt.

Fix this by:
1. Adding explicit handling for the `help` subcommand to show usage;
2. Validating that unrecognized commands are actually valid state
   commands before calling `bisect_state`;
3. Showing an error with usage for truly invalid commands.

This ensures that `git bisect help` displays the usage as documented,
and invalid commands fail cleanly without entering interactive mode.
Alternate terms are still handled correctly through
`check_and_set_terms`.

Signed-off-by: Ruoyu Zhong <[email-masked]>
---
    bisect: fix handling of help and invalid subcommands

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-git-2078%2FZhongRuoyu%2Fgit-bisect-subcommands-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-git-2078/ZhongRuoyu/git-bisect-subcommands-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/git/git/pull/2078

 builtin/bisect.c | 6 +++++-
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/builtin/bisect.c b/builtin/bisect.c
index 8b8d870cd1..993caf545d 100644
--- a/builtin/bisect.c
+++ b/builtin/bisect.c
@@ -1453,9 +1453,13 @@ int cmd_bisect(int argc,
 		if (!argc)
 			usage_msg_opt(_("need a command"), git_bisect_usage, options);
 
+		if (!strcmp(argv[0], "help"))
+			usage_with_options(git_bisect_usage, options);
+
 		set_terms(&terms, "bad", "good");
 		get_terms(&terms);
-		if (check_and_set_terms(&terms, argv[0]))
+		if (check_and_set_terms(&terms, argv[0]) ||
+		    !one_of(argv[0], terms.term_good, terms.term_bad, NULL))
 			usage_msg_optf(_("unknown command: '%s'"), git_bisect_usage,
 				       options, argv[0]);
 		res = bisect_state(&terms, argc, argv);

base-commit: 81f86aacc4eb74cdb9c2c8082d36d2070c666045
-- 
gitgitgadget