1lcov(1)                          User Manuals                          lcov(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       lcov - a graphical GCOV front-end
7

SYNOPSIS

9       lcov -c|--capture
10            [-d|--directory directory] [-k|--kernel-directory directory]
11            [-o|--output-file tracefile] [-t|--test-name testname]
12            [-b|--base-directory directory] [-i|--initial] [--gcov-tool tool]
13            [--checksum] [--no-checksum] [--no-recursion] [-f|--follow]
14            [--compat-libtool] [--no-compat-libtool] [--ignore-errors errors]
15            [--to-package package] [--from-package package] [-q|--quiet]
16            [--no-markers] [--external] [--no-external]
17            [--config-file config-file] [--rc keyword=value]
18            [--compat mode=on|off|auto]
19            [--include pattern] [--exclude pattern]
20
21       lcov -z|--zerocounters
22            [-d|--directory directory] [--no-recursion] [-f|--follow]
23            [-q|--quiet]
24
25       lcov -l|--list tracefile
26            [-q|--quiet] [--list-full-path] [--no-list-full-path]
27            [--config-file config-file] [--rc keyword=value]
28
29       lcov -a|--add-tracefile tracefile
30            [-o|--output-file tracefile] [--checksum] [--no-checksum]
31            [-q|--quiet] [--config-file config-file] [--rc keyword=value]
32
33       lcov -e|--extract tracefile pattern
34            [-o|--output-file tracefile] [--checksum] [--no-checksum]
35            [-q|--quiet] [--config-file config-file] [--rc keyword=value]
36
37       lcov -r|--remove tracefile pattern
38            [-o|--output-file tracefile] [--checksum] [--no-checksum]
39            [-q|--quiet] [--config-file config-file] [--rc keyword=value]
40
41       lcov --diff tracefile diff
42            [-o|--output-file tracefile] [--checksum] [--no-checksum]
43            [--convert-filenames] [--strip depth] [--path path] [-q|--quiet]
44            [--config-file config-file] [--rc keyword=value]
45
46       lcov --summary tracefile
47            [-q|--quiet]
48
49       lcov [-h|--help] [-v|--version]
50
51

DESCRIPTION

53       lcov  is a graphical front-end for GCC's coverage testing tool gcov. It
54       collects line, function and branch coverage data  for  multiple  source
55       files  and creates HTML pages containing the source code annotated with
56       coverage information.  It also adds overview pages for easy  navigation
57       within the file structure.
58
59       Use  lcov  to  collect  coverage data and genhtml to create HTML pages.
60       Coverage data can either be collected from the currently running  Linux
61       kernel  or  from a user space application. To do this, you have to com‐
62       plete the following preparation steps:
63
64       For Linux kernel coverage:
65              Follow the setup instructions for  the  gcov-kernel  infrastruc‐
66              ture: http://ltp.sourceforge.net/coverage/gcov.php
67
68
69       For user space application coverage:
70              Compile  the  application  with  GCC  using  the options "-fpro‐
71              file-arcs" and "-ftest-coverage".
72
73       Please note that this man page refers to the output format of  lcov  as
74       ".info  file" or "tracefile" and that the output of GCOV is called ".da
75       file".
76
77       Also note that when printing percentages, 0% and 100% are only  printed
78       when  the  values  are  exactly  0% and 100% respectively. Other values
79       which would conventionally be rounded to 0% or 100% are instead printed
80       as nearest non-boundary value. This behavior is in accordance with that
81       of the gcov(1) tool.
82
83

OPTIONS

85       -a tracefile
86       --add-tracefile tracefile
87              Add contents of tracefile.
88
89              Specify several tracefiles using the -a switch  to  combine  the
90              coverage  data  contained  in these files by adding up execution
91              counts for matching test and filename combinations.
92
93              The result of the add operation will be written to stdout or the
94              tracefile specified with -o.
95
96              Only  one of  -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
97              specified at a time.
98
99
100       -b directory
101       --base-directory directory
102              Use directory as base directory for relative paths.
103
104              Use this option to specify the base directory of  a  build-envi‐
105              ronment when lcov produces error messages like:
106
107                     ERROR: could not read source file /home/user/project/sub‐
108                     dir1/subdir2/subdir1/subdir2/file.c
109
110              In this example, use /home/user/project as base directory.
111
112              This option is required when using lcov on projects  built  with
113              libtool  or similar build environments that work with a base di‐
114              rectory, i.e. environments, where the current working  directory
115              when  invoking  the  compiler is not the same directory in which
116              the source code file is located.
117
118              Note that this option will not work in environments where multi‐
119              ple  base  directories  are used. In that case use configuration
120              file setting geninfo_auto_base=1 (see lcovrc(5)).
121
122       -c
123       --capture
124              Capture coverage data.
125
126              By default captures the  current  kernel  execution  counts  and
127              writes  the  resulting coverage data to the standard output. Use
128              the --directory option to capture counts for a user  space  pro‐
129              gram.
130
131              The result of the capture operation will be written to stdout or
132              the tracefile specified with -o.
133
134              Only one of  -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may  be
135              specified at a time.
136
137       --checksum
138       --no-checksum
139              Specify  whether  to  generate checksum data when writing trace‐
140              files.
141
142              Use --checksum to enable checksum generation or --no-checksum to
143              disable it. Checksum generation is disabled by default.
144
145              When  checksum  generation is enabled, a checksum will be gener‐
146              ated for each source code line and stored along with the  cover‐
147              age data. This checksum will be used to prevent attempts to com‐
148              bine coverage data from different source code versions.
149
150              If you don't work with different source code  versions,  disable
151              this  option  to speed up coverage data processing and to reduce
152              the size of tracefiles.
153
154       --compat mode=value[,mode=value,...]
155              Set compatibility mode.
156
157              Use --compat to specify that lcov should enable one or more com‐
158              patibility modes when capturing coverage data. You can provide a
159              comma-separated list of mode=value pairs to specify  the  values
160              for multiple modes.
161
162              Valid values are:
163
164              on
165                     Enable compatibility mode.
166              off
167                     Disable compatibility mode.
168              auto
169                     Apply  auto-detection  to determine if compatibility mode
170                     is required. Note that auto-detection  is  not  available
171                     for all compatibility modes.
172
173              If no value is specified, 'on' is assumed as default value.
174
175              Valid modes are:
176
177              libtool
178                     Enable this mode if you are capturing coverage data for a
179                     project that was built using the libtool  mechanism.  See
180                     also --compat-libtool.
181
182                     The default value for this setting is 'on'.
183
184              hammer
185                     Enable this mode if you are capturing coverage data for a
186                     project that was built using a version of  GCC  3.3  that
187                     contains  a modification (hammer patch) of later GCC ver‐
188                     sions. You can identify a modified GCC  3.3  by  checking
189                     the  build  directory of your project for files ending in
190                     the extension '.bbg'. Unmodified versions of GCC 3.3 name
191                     these files '.bb'.
192
193                     The default value for this setting is 'auto'.
194
195              split_crc
196                     Enable this mode if you are capturing coverage data for a
197                     project that was built using a version of  GCC  4.6  that
198                     contains  a  modification  (split  function checksums) of
199                     later GCC versions. Typical error messages  when  running
200                     lcov  on  coverage data produced by such GCC versions are
201                     ´out of memory' and 'reached unexpected end of file'.
202
203                     The default value for this setting is 'auto'
204
205
206       --compat-libtool
207       --no-compat-libtool
208              Specify whether to enable libtool compatibility mode.
209
210              Use --compat-libtool to enable  libtool  compatibility  mode  or
211              --no-compat-libtool  to  disable  it.  The libtool compatibility
212              mode is enabled by default.
213
214              When libtool compatibility mode is  enabled,  lcov  will  assume
215              that  the source code relating to a .da file located in a direc‐
216              tory named ".libs" can be found in its parent directory.
217
218              If you have directories named ".libs" in your build  environment
219              but  don't  use libtool, disable this option to prevent problems
220              when capturing coverage data.
221
222       --config-file config-file
223              Specify a configuration file to use.
224
225              When this option is specified, neither the system-wide  configu‐
226              ration  file  /etc/lcovrc,  nor  the per-user configuration file
227              ~/.lcovrc is read.
228
229              This option may be useful when there is a need  to  run  several
230              instances  of  lcov with different configuration file options in
231              parallel.
232
233       --convert-filenames
234              Convert filenames when applying diff.
235
236              Use this option together with --diff to rename the file names of
237              processed data sets according to the data provided by the diff.
238
239       --diff tracefile difffile
240              Convert  coverage  data in tracefile using source code diff file
241              difffile.
242
243              Use this option if you want to merge coverage data from  differ‐
244              ent  source  code  levels  of a program, e.g. when you have data
245              taken from an older version and want to  combine  it  with  data
246              from  a  more current version.  lcov will try to map source code
247              lines between those versions and adjust the  coverage  data  re‐
248              spectively.  difffile needs to be in unified format, i.e. it has
249              to be created using the "-u" option of the diff tool.
250
251              Note that lines which are not present in the  old  version  will
252              not  be  counted as instrumented, therefore tracefiles resulting
253              from this operation should not be interpreted  individually  but
254              together  with  other  tracefiles  taken from the newer version.
255              Also keep in mind that converted coverage data  should  only  be
256              used  for  overview  purposes as the process itself introduces a
257              loss of accuracy.
258
259              The result of the diff operation will be written  to  stdout  or
260              the tracefile specified with -o.
261
262              Only  one of  -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
263              specified at a time.
264
265       -d directory
266       --directory directory
267              Use .da files in directory instead of kernel.
268
269              If you want to work on coverage data for a user  space  program,
270              use  this  option  to specify the location where the program was
271              compiled (that's where the counter files ending with .da will be
272              stored).
273
274              Note that you may specify this option more than once.
275
276       --exclude pattern
277              Exclude source files matching pattern.
278
279              Use  this switch if you want to exclude coverage data for a par‐
280              ticular set of source files matching any of the given  patterns.
281              Multiple  patterns  can be specified by using multiple --exclude
282              command line switches. The patterns will be interpreted as shell
283              wildcard patterns (note that they may need to be escaped accord‐
284              ingly to prevent the shell from expanding them first).
285
286              Can be combined with the --include command  line  switch.  If  a
287              given file matches both the include pattern and the exclude pat‐
288              tern, the exclude pattern will take precedence.
289
290       --external
291       --no-external
292              Specify whether to capture coverage  data  for  external  source
293              files.
294
295              External  source files are files which are not located in one of
296              the directories specified by  --directory  or  --base-directory.
297              Use  --external to include external source files while capturing
298              coverage data or --no-external to ignore this data.
299
300              Data for external source files is included by default.
301
302       -e tracefile pattern
303       --extract tracefile pattern
304              Extract data from tracefile.
305
306              Use this switch if you want to extract coverage data for only  a
307              particular  set  of  files  from a tracefile. Additional command
308              line parameters will be interpreted as shell  wildcard  patterns
309              (note  that  they  may need to be escaped accordingly to prevent
310              the shell from expanding  them  first).   Every  file  entry  in
311              tracefile  which  matches at least one of those patterns will be
312              extracted.
313
314              The result of the extract operation will be written to stdout or
315              the tracefile specified with -o.
316
317              Only  one of  -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
318              specified at a time.
319
320       -f
321       --follow
322              Follow links when searching for .da files.
323
324       --from-package package
325              Use .da files in package instead of kernel or directory.
326
327              Use this option if you have separate machines for build and test
328              and  want  to  perform  the .info file creation on the build ma‐
329              chine. See --to-package for more information.
330
331       --gcov-tool tool
332              Specify the location of the gcov tool.
333
334       -h
335       --help
336              Print a short help text, then exit.
337
338       --include pattern
339              Include source files matching pattern.
340
341              Use this switch if you want to include coverage data for only  a
342              particular  set  of  source files matching any of the given pat‐
343              terns. Multiple patterns can  be  specified  by  using  multiple
344              --include  command  line  switches.  The patterns will be inter‐
345              preted as shell wildcard patterns (note that they may need to be
346              escaped  accordingly  to  prevent  the shell from expanding them
347              first).
348
349       --ignore-errors errors
350              Specify a list of errors after which to continue processing.
351
352              Use this option to specify a list of one or more classes of  er‐
353              rors  after  which  lcov  should  continue processing instead of
354              aborting.
355
356              errors can be a comma-separated list of the following keywords:
357
358              gcov: the gcov tool returned with a non-zero return code.
359
360              source: the source code file for a data set could not be found.
361
362              graph: the graph file could not be found or is corrupted.
363
364       -i
365       --initial
366              Capture initial zero coverage data.
367
368              Run lcov with -c and this option on the  directories  containing
369              .bb,  .bbg  or .gcno files before running any test case. The re‐
370              sult is a "baseline" coverage data file that contains zero  cov‐
371              erage  for every instrumented line.  Combine this data file (us‐
372              ing lcov -a) with coverage data files captured after a test  run
373              to  ensure that the percentage of total lines covered is correct
374              even when not all source code files were loaded during the test.
375
376              Recommended procedure when capturing data for a test case:
377
378              1. create baseline coverage data file
379                     # lcov -c -i -d appdir -o app_base.info
380
381              2. perform test
382                     # appdir/test
383
384              3. create test coverage data file
385                     # lcov -c -d appdir -o app_test.info
386
387              4. combine baseline and test coverage data
388                     # lcov  -a  app_base.info  -a  app_test.info  -o  app_to‐
389                     tal.info
390
391
392       -k subdirectory
393       --kernel-directory subdirectory
394              Capture kernel coverage data only from subdirectory.
395
396              Use  this  option if you don't want to get coverage data for all
397              of the kernel, but only for specific subdirectories. This option
398              may be specified more than once.
399
400              Note  that  you  may need to specify the full path to the kernel
401              subdirectory depending on the version of the  kernel  gcov  sup‐
402              port.
403
404       -l tracefile
405       --list tracefile
406              List the contents of the tracefile.
407
408              Only  one of  -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
409              specified at a time.
410
411       --list-full-path
412       --no-list-full-path
413              Specify whether to show full paths during list operation.
414
415              Use --list-full-path to show full paths during list operation or
416              --no-list-full-path to show shortened paths. Paths are shortened
417              by default.
418
419       --no-markers
420              Use this option if you want to get coverage data without  regard
421              to  exclusion  markers  in the source code file. See geninfo (1)
422              for details on exclusion markers.
423
424       --no-recursion
425              Use this option if you want to get coverage data for the  speci‐
426              fied directory only without processing subdirectories.
427
428       -o tracefile
429       --output-file tracefile
430              Write data to tracefile instead of stdout.
431
432              Specify "-" as a filename to use the standard output.
433
434              By  convention,  lcov-generated  coverage  data files are called
435              "tracefiles" and should have the filename extension ".info".
436
437       --path path
438              Strip path from filenames when applying diff.
439
440              Use this option together with --diff to tell lcov  to  disregard
441              the  specified  initial  path  component  when  matching between
442              tracefile and diff filenames.
443
444       -q
445       --quiet
446              Do not print progress messages.
447
448              This option is implied when no output filename is  specified  to
449              prevent  progress  messages  to mess with coverage data which is
450              also printed to the standard output.
451
452       --rc keyword=value
453              Override a configuration directive.
454
455              Use this option to specify a keyword=value statement which over‐
456              rides  the  corresponding  configuration statement in the lcovrc
457              configuration file. You can specify this option more  than  once
458              to  override  multiple  configuration statements.  See lcovrc(5)
459              for a list of available keywords and their meaning.
460
461       -r tracefile pattern
462       --remove tracefile pattern
463              Remove data from tracefile.
464
465              Use this switch if you want to remove coverage data for  a  par‐
466              ticular  set  of files from a tracefile. Additional command line
467              parameters will be interpreted as shell wildcard patterns  (note
468              that  they  may  need  to  be escaped accordingly to prevent the
469              shell from expanding them first).  Every file entry in tracefile
470              which matches at least one of those patterns will be removed.
471
472              The  result of the remove operation will be written to stdout or
473              the tracefile specified with -o.
474
475              Only one of  -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may  be
476              specified at a time.
477
478       --strip depth
479              Strip path components when applying diff.
480
481              Use  this  option together with --diff to tell lcov to disregard
482              the specified number of initial directories when matching trace‐
483              file and diff filenames.
484
485       --summary tracefile
486              Show summary coverage information for the specified tracefile.
487
488              Note that you may specify this option more than once.
489
490              Only  one of  -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
491              specified at a time.
492
493       -t testname
494       --test-name testname
495              Specify test name to be stored in the tracefile.
496
497              This name identifies a coverage data set when more than one data
498              set is merged into a combined tracefile (see option -a).
499
500              Valid  test names can consist of letters, decimal digits and the
501              underscore character ("_").
502
503       --to-package package
504              Store .da files for later processing.
505
506              Use this option if you have separate machines for build and test
507              and  want  to  perform  the .info file creation on the build ma‐
508              chine. To do this, follow these steps:
509
510              On the test machine:
511                     - run the test
512                     - run lcov -c [-d directory] --to-package file
513                     - copy file to the build machine
514
515              On the build machine:
516                     - run lcov -c --from-package file [-o and other options]
517
518              This works for both kernel and user space  coverage  data.  Note
519              that  you  might have to specify the path to the build directory
520              using -b with either --to-package or --from-package.  Note  also
521              that  the  package data must be converted to a .info file before
522              recompiling the program or it will become invalid.
523
524       -v
525       --version
526              Print version number, then exit.
527
528       -z
529       --zerocounters
530              Reset all execution counts to zero.
531
532              By default tries to reset kernel execution counts. Use the --di‐
533              rectory option to reset all counters of a user space program.
534
535              Only  one of  -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
536              specified at a time.
537
538

FILES

540       /etc/lcovrc
541              The system-wide configuration file.
542
543       ~/.lcovrc
544              The per-user configuration file.
545
546

AUTHOR

548       Peter Oberparleiter <Peter.Oberparleiter@de.ibm.com>
549
550

SEE ALSO

552       lcovrc(5), genhtml(1), geninfo(1), genpng(1), gendesc(1), gcov(1)
553
554
555
5562023-01-19                         LCOV 1.14                           lcov(1)
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