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+---
+title: "Bisecting"
+weight: 5
+---
+
+# Bisecting
+
+Updated for CSIT git commit hash: 153c9e1215f27ad166df0ce4bd2541d9f37a7afa.
+
+When trending (or report release comparison) detects a performance anomaly,
+it is possible to narrow down its cause in VPP repository.
+This document explains how.
+
+## Naming
+
+Bisect is a binary search, it relies on "git bisect" command.
+At the start, two commits need to be marked. One as "old", the other as "new".
+Upon second mark, "git bisect" checks out a commit in the middle,
+and waits for the user to mark it either old or new.
+This effectively replaces the previous mark of the same type,
+so "new middle" is checked out, halving the search interval.
+
+But, "old" and "new" frequently refers to the time order bisect chooses commits,
+so in this document we use different adjectives:
+Early, mid, late. Early commit and late commit are the current
+boundaries of the search interval, mid commit is the next one
+to test and classify.
+The initial boundaries, as input parameters to the whole search process
+are called the earliest commit and the latest commit.
+
+## Bisect jobs
+
+VPP is the only project currently using such jobs.
+They are not started automatically, they must be triggered on demand.
+They allow full tag expressions, but only some result types are supported.
+Currently it is all perf types in UTI model:
+"mrr", "ndrpdr", "soak", "reconf" and "hoststack".
+Device tests (pass/fail) are not supported yet.
+If a test fails, a low fake value is used instead of results,
+so the bisect procedure can also find breakages (and fixes).
+
+The trigger word contains the intended testbed type,
+e.g. "bisecttest-2n-spr".
+
+The next word needs to be a commit hash of the intended earliest VPP build.
+The latest VPP build is the change the comment is added to.
+
+If additional arguments are added to the Gerrit trigger, they are treated
+as Robot tag expressions to select tests to run.
+
+## Basic operation
+
+The job builds VPP .deb packages for both the earliest and latest VPP commit,
+then runs the selected tests on both (using CSIT code at HEAD
+of the newest CSIT oper branch, or CSIT_REF if started manually on Jenkins).
+In archived logs, the results of earliest VPP build are in "earliest" directory,
+and results of latest VPP build are in "latest" directory.
+
+Then the job follows VPP mid commits selected by "git bisect".
+They are built and tested, results appear in "middle" directory,
+numbered in order "git bisect" has chosen them.
+
+When classifying the newly measured performance of the current mid commit,
+the three sets of current results (early, mid, late) are grouped
+in three ways. The mid is either added to early group, or to late group,
+or kept as a separate group.
+The same Minimal Description Length algorithm as in trend analysis
+is used to select the grouping with smallest information content.
+If the grouping with the mid results added to the early group
+is the smallest, the mid commit becomes the new early.
+If the grouping with the mid results added to the late group
+is the smallest, the mid commit becomes the new late.
+If the grouping with the mid results separate is the smallest,
+the mid commit becomes that boundary which keeps larger difference
+of average performances (relative to the larger value, pairwise).
+
+## Temporary specifics
+
+The Minimal Description Length analysis is performed by
+jumpavg-0.4.1 (available on PyPI).
+
+In contrast to trending, MRR trial duration is kept at 1 second,
+but trial multiplicity is set to 60 samples.
+Both parameters are set in ci-management,
+overridable when triggerring manually on Jenkins.
+
+The 60x1s setting increases probability of false anomalies,
+but bisect always converges to a commit;
+it is up to humans to decide if that is a real anomaly.
+On upside, stdev is estimated better, making the bisection less sensitive
+to randomness. Systematic errors are still possible,
+but overall this choice leads to more human-like search decisions.
+
+As test failures are tolerated, the bisect job usually succeeds
+(unless there is a fatal infrastructure issue).
+Human investigation is needed to confirm the identified commit is the real cause.
+For example, if the cause is in CSIT and all builds lead to failed tests,
+the bisect will converge to the earliest commit, which is probably innocent.
+
+## Console output
+
+After each mid build is tested, the tree sets of relevant results
+are visible in the console output, the prefixes are (without quotes)
+"Read csit_early: "
+"Read csit_late: "
+"Read csit_mid: ".
+Each prefix is followed by a list of float values extracted from the tests,
+the meaning and units depend on tests chosen
+(but do not matter as the same set of tests is executed for each build).
+There are also lines starting with "Stats: AvgStdevStats"
+which give and overview for average and standard deviation.
+Then, the information content in bits for the three possible groupings is listed,
+followed by the decision, bits saving and new performance difference.
+After the last iteration, the commit message of the offending commit is listed.