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Full Version: Dolphin Bisection Tool for finding broken builds
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BROKEN DUE TO INFRA CHANGES FOR NOW


This is a tool that will help Windows users help us developers nail down issues that they experience. We get a lot of issue reports where we are unable to reproduce the issue, and the only builds that were tested were the latest stable and some build that isn't a million years old. That doesn't help much! That still leaves literally thousands of builds to test. However, nobody wants nor expects anybody else to test thousands of builds, so this is where bisecting comes in!

Bisecting is a process where you use a binary search to narrow down the builds affecting the issue, and eventually finding it, without testing thousands. However, doing this by hand is a real pain. Linux and OS X (kinda) users can just use git which has it's own bisection system to automate the process, but Windows users are pretty much stuck doing it by hand unless they want to learn how to use msvc by CLI. And that sucks because most of our windows users do not want to do that.

So this is where my tool comes in. It allows you to select two builds, one build where you know the issue didn't happen, and one where you know it did. The program then automates downloading, extracting, and running each build, allowing you to test for your issue rapidly. My program also allows you to auto-boot a title every launch so you don't have to manually do that. After each test, you close dolphin and it asks whether the issue happened. Give the program your answer, and based on your answer it will choose the next build. It repeats this process until it has one build left.

What can you do with this information? You provide the build number that broke your issue with your issue report or forum thread. This lets us get on the hunt for that bug in code MUCH faster and possibly get a fix going.

How to use:
  • Download and run the tool (I highly recommend extracting it to an empty folder)
  • Select your two builds
  • Optionally select a title to auto boot
  • Click start
  • After each test, close Dolphin. The tool will ask you a question each time.

Planned improvements:
  • Add support for toggling always running with a clean config.
  • Add support for copying global config to the testing environment and keeping that persistent for testing only.
  • Add support for running with a clean config, but keeping it persistent across testing
  • Localization support. Idly looking into Transifex.

Download:

Make sure you have the .NET 4.5 framework installed!: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download...x?id=30653

https://github.com/Helios747/DolphinBisectTool/releases


Report Issues:


https://github.com/Helios747/DolphinBisectTool/issues


Source:


https://github.com/Helios747/DolphinBisectTool


Feedback, PRs, input, all appreciated. Hope this helps!
Ok, this is weird every time i try to load it , it loads indefinitely and i have to close explorer. Same problem i get with latest dev builds of desmume, perhaps i am missing something? I have windows 10 x64, tried installing 4.0 framework and it says it won't install because it is already installed.
Does the form open with a message at the bottom left saying "Downloading build index"?

If so that's normal and it's downloading like 4-5 mb worth of data.

I've narrowed down the issue a bit. It might be only affecting users that don't have vs2013/15 installed. I might be missing a pre-req. I'll know more when I get home.
(11-19-2015, 04:00 AM)helios747 Wrote: [ -> ]Does the form open with a message at the bottom left saying "Downloading build index"?

If so that's normal and it's downloading like 4-5 mb worth of data.

Nope it won't load at all, the mouse pointer takes a loading shape but never loads anything. It doesn't even appear in the task manager, and the mouse stops the loading pointer shape only if i close explorer.
There is one other user reporting a hang as well, and somebody in IRC told me the way I'm calling my download code is suboptimal and probably blocking something.

I'm going to rewrite it tonight and hopefully push a fix.

Fix released but I can't repro this issue at all in a clean VM so I dunno if it worked.
(11-19-2015, 07:03 AM)helios747 Wrote: [ -> ]There is one other user reporting a hang as well, and somebody in IRC told me the way I'm calling my download code is suboptimal and probably blocking something.

I'm going to rewrite it tonight and hopefully push a fix.

Fix released but I can't repro this issue at all in a clean VM so I dunno if it worked.

Nope same issue, i have something similar with the latest dev builds of desmume so i guess either i am missing something or something is broken in my windows installation. It is an upgrade from windows 7 to windows 10.
Sounds like you have a different issue (related to Windows, not those tools) that needs fixing.

Could you try one thing tho?
1. Open the folder where the application is
2. Hold down Shift and right-click somewhere in the empty space inside the folder (don't click on a file or folder)
3. Select "Open command prompt here"
4. Type in the filename as it is in the folder (ex. "DolphinBisectTool.exe") and confirm with Return
(11-20-2015, 03:28 AM)Jack Frost Wrote: [ -> ]Sounds like you have a different issue (related to Windows, not those tools) that needs fixing.

Could you try one thing tho?
1. Open the folder where the application is
2. Hold down Shift and right-click somewhere in the empty space inside the folder (don't click on a file or folder)
3. Select "Open command prompt here"
4. Type in the filename as it is in the folder (ex. "DolphinBisectTool.exe") and confirm with Return

Tried it and it does something similar with before it goes at the next line but nothing happens. Nothing loads and i get neither errors prompts or anything else.

Edit: Ok i searched in the control panel and saw no NET 4.0 framework installed, just 4.5 and 4.5.1. but it didn't let me install it since there is a newer version when i tried.

http://prntscr.com/94optq
Windows 10 has those installed by default, and 4.5 is an in-place upgrade for 4.0...so you should be set.
Maybe this is a different issue? Windows might block the .exe file when downloaded from the internet, check the .exe (and the .dll files) by doing right-click, Properties and see if there's an Unblock button. If there is, click it (because Windows will prevent the thing from running otherwise).
git bisect FTW!!!
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