diff --git a/lib/help-search.js b/lib/help-search.js
index c1814b4e53fc3..d60ef5b4ba89f 100644
--- a/lib/help-search.js
+++ b/lib/help-search.js
@@ -132,11 +132,15 @@ const searchFiles = async (args, data, files) => {
 
   // sort results by number of results found, then by number of hits
   // then by number of matching lines
+
+  // coverage is ignored here because the contents of results are
+  // nondeterministic due to either glob or readFiles or Object.entries
   return results.sort((a, b) =>
     a.found.length > b.found.length ? -1
     : a.found.length < b.found.length ? 1
     : a.totalHits > b.totalHits ? -1
     : a.totalHits < b.totalHits ? 1
+    /* istanbul ignore next */
     : a.lines.length > b.lines.length ? -1
     : a.lines.length < b.lines.length ? 1
     : 0).slice(0, 10)