git bisect
advancedDefinition
A Git command that finds which commit introduced a bug by repeatedly checking out a version halfway between a known-good and a known-bad one and asking you whether the bug is there.
In the wild
The receipt totals worked last month and are wrong today, 200 commits later; git bisect narrows it down to the one guilty commit in about eight checks.
More from Git & Collaboration
Branch
A separate line of work inside a repository where you can make changes without affecting the main version until you merge them back.
Changelog
A file that lists what changed in each version of a project, in plain words, newest first, so people can see what's new or fixed without reading the code.
Cherry-pick
Copying one specific commit from another branch onto yours, without bringing along anything else from that branch.
Clone vs Fork
Cloning downloads a copy of a repository to your own computer; forking makes your own copy of someone else's repository on GitHub, which you can change and later offer back to them.
Commit
A saved snapshot of a project's files at one moment, with a short note describing what changed.
Diff
A side-by-side view of exactly what changed between two versions of a file, with removed lines marked by a minus sign and added lines by a plus sign.