lcov(1) User Manuals lcov(1)NAMElcov - a graphical GCOV front-end
SYNOPSISlcov -c|--capture
[-d|--directory directory] [-k|--kernel-directory directory]
[-o|--output-file tracefile] [-t|--test-name testname]
[-b|--base-directory directory] [-i|--initial] [--gcov-tool tool]
[--checksum] [--no-checksum] [--no-recursion] [-f|--follow]
[--compat-libtool] [--no-compat-libtool] [--ignore-errors errors]
[--to-package package] [--from-package package] [-q|--quiet]
[--no-markers] [--external] [--no-external]
[--config-file config-file] [--rc keyword=value]
[--compat mode=on|off|auto]
lcov -z|--zerocounters
[-d|--directory directory] [--no-recursion] [-f|--follow]
[-q|--quiet]
lcov -l|--list tracefile
[-q|--quiet] [--list-full-path] [--no-list-full-path]
[--config-file config-file] [--rc keyword=value]
lcov -a|--add-tracefile tracefile
[-o|--output-file tracefile] [--checksum] [--no-checksum]
[-q|--quiet] [--config-file config-file] [--rc keyword=value]
lcov -e|--extract tracefile pattern
[-o|--output-file tracefile] [--checksum] [--no-checksum]
[-q|--quiet] [--config-file config-file] [--rc keyword=value]
lcov -r|--remove tracefile pattern
[-o|--output-file tracefile] [--checksum] [--no-checksum]
[-q|--quiet] [--config-file config-file] [--rc keyword=value]
lcov--diff tracefile diff
[-o|--output-file tracefile] [--checksum] [--no-checksum]
[--convert-filenames] [--strip depth] [--path path] [-q|--quiet]
[--config-file config-file] [--rc keyword=value]
lcov--summary tracefile
[-q|--quiet]
lcov [-h|--help] [-v|--version]
DESCRIPTIONlcov is a graphical front-end for GCC's coverage testing tool gcov. It
collects line, function and branch coverage data for multiple source
files and creates HTML pages containing the source code annotated with
coverage information. It also adds overview pages for easy navigation
within the file structure.
Use lcov to collect coverage data and genhtml to create HTML pages.
Coverage data can either be collected from the currently running Linux
kernel or from a user space application. To do this, you have to com‐
plete the following preparation steps:
For Linux kernel coverage:
Follow the setup instructions for the gcov-kernel infrastruc‐
ture: http://ltp.sourceforge.net/coverage/gcov.php
For user space application coverage:
Compile the application with GCC using the options "-fpro‐
file-arcs" and "-ftest-coverage".
Please note that this man page refers to the output format of lcov as
".info file" or "tracefile" and that the output of GCOV is called ".da
file".
Also note that when printing percentages, 0% and 100% are only printed
when the values are exactly 0% and 100% respectively. Other values
which would conventionally be rounded to 0% or 100% are instead printed
as nearest non-boundary value. This behavior is in accordance with that
of the gcov(1) tool.
OPTIONS-a tracefile
--add-tracefile tracefile
Add contents of tracefile.
Specify several tracefiles using the -a switch to combine the
coverage data contained in these files by adding up execution
counts for matching test and filename combinations.
The result of the add operation will be written to stdout or the
tracefile specified with -o.
Only one of -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
specified at a time.
-b directory
--base-directory directory
Use directory as base directory for relative paths.
Use this option to specify the base directory of a build-envi‐
ronment when lcov produces error messages like:
ERROR: could not read source file /home/user/project/sub‐
dir1/subdir2/subdir1/subdir2/file.c
In this example, use /home/user/project as base directory.
This option is required when using lcov on projects built with
libtool or similar build environments that work with a base
directory, i.e. environments, where the current working direc‐
tory when invoking the compiler is not the same directory in
which the source code file is located.
Note that this option will not work in environments where multi‐
ple base directories are used. In that case use configuration
file setting geninfo_auto_base=1 (see lcovrc(5)).
-c
--capture
Capture coverage data.
By default captures the current kernel execution counts and
writes the resulting coverage data to the standard output. Use
the --directory option to capture counts for a user space pro‐
gram.
The result of the capture operation will be written to stdout or
the tracefile specified with -o.
Only one of -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
specified at a time.
--checksum
--no-checksum
Specify whether to generate checksum data when writing trace‐
files.
Use --checksum to enable checksum generation or --no-checksum to
disable it. Checksum generation is disabled by default.
When checksum generation is enabled, a checksum will be gener‐
ated for each source code line and stored along with the cover‐
age data. This checksum will be used to prevent attempts to com‐
bine coverage data from different source code versions.
If you don't work with different source code versions, disable
this option to speed up coverage data processing and to reduce
the size of tracefiles.
--compat mode=value[,mode=value,...]
Set compatibility mode.
Use --compat to specify that lcov should enable one or more com‐
patibility modes when capturing coverage data. You can provide a
comma-separated list of mode=value pairs to specify the values
for multiple modes.
Valid values are:
on
Enable compatibility mode.
off
Disable compatibility mode.
auto
Apply auto-detection to determine if compatibility mode
is required. Note that auto-detection is not available
for all compatibility modes.
If no value is specified, 'on' is assumed as default value.
Valid modes are:
libtool
Enable this mode if you are capturing coverage data for a
project that was built using the libtool mechanism. See
also --compat-libtool.
The default value for this setting is 'on'.
hammer
Enable this mode if you are capturing coverage data for a
project that was built using a version of GCC 3.3 that
contains a modification (hammer patch) of later GCC ver‐
sions. You can identify a modified GCC 3.3 by checking
the build directory of your project for files ending in
the extension '.bbg'. Unmodified versions of GCC 3.3 name
these files '.bb'.
The default value for this setting is 'auto'.
split_crc
Enable this mode if you are capturing coverage data for a
project that was built using a version of GCC 4.6 that
contains a modification (split function checksums) of
later GCC versions. Typical error messages when running
lcov on coverage data produced by such GCC versions are
´out of memory' and 'reached unexpected end of file'.
The default value for this setting is 'auto'
--compat-libtool
--no-compat-libtool
Specify whether to enable libtool compatibility mode.
Use --compat-libtool to enable libtool compatibility mode or
--no-compat-libtool to disable it. The libtool compatibility
mode is enabled by default.
When libtool compatibility mode is enabled, lcov will assume
that the source code relating to a .da file located in a direc‐
tory named ".libs" can be found in its parent directory.
If you have directories named ".libs" in your build environment
but don't use libtool, disable this option to prevent problems
when capturing coverage data.
--config-file config-file
Specify a configuration file to use.
When this option is specified, neither the system-wide configu‐
ration file /etc/lcovrc, nor the per-user configuration file
~/.lcovrc is read.
This option may be useful when there is a need to run several
instances of lcov with different configuration file options in
parallel.
--convert-filenames
Convert filenames when applying diff.
Use this option together with --diff to rename the file names of
processed data sets according to the data provided by the diff.
--diff tracefile difffile
Convert coverage data in tracefile using source code diff file
difffile.
Use this option if you want to merge coverage data from differ‐
ent source code levels of a program, e.g. when you have data
taken from an older version and want to combine it with data
from a more current version. lcov will try to map source code
lines between those versions and adjust the coverage data
respectively. difffile needs to be in unified format, i.e. it
has to be created using the "-u" option of the diff tool.
Note that lines which are not present in the old version will
not be counted as instrumented, therefore tracefiles resulting
from this operation should not be interpreted individually but
together with other tracefiles taken from the newer version.
Also keep in mind that converted coverage data should only be
used for overview purposes as the process itself introduces a
loss of accuracy.
The result of the diff operation will be written to stdout or
the tracefile specified with -o.
Only one of -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
specified at a time.
-d directory
--directory directory
Use .da files in directory instead of kernel.
If you want to work on coverage data for a user space program,
use this option to specify the location where the program was
compiled (that's where the counter files ending with .da will be
stored).
Note that you may specify this option more than once.
--external
--no-external
Specify whether to capture coverage data for external source
files.
External source files are files which are not located in one of
the directories specified by --directory or --base-directory.
Use --external to include external source files while capturing
coverage data or --no-external to ignore this data.
Data for external source files is included by default.
-e tracefile pattern
--extract tracefile pattern
Extract data from tracefile.
Use this switch if you want to extract coverage data for only a
particular set of files from a tracefile. Additional command
line parameters will be interpreted as shell wildcard patterns
(note that they may need to be escaped accordingly to prevent
the shell from expanding them first). Every file entry in
tracefile which matches at least one of those patterns will be
extracted.
The result of the extract operation will be written to stdout or
the tracefile specified with -o.
Only one of -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
specified at a time.
-f
--follow
Follow links when searching for .da files.
--from-package package
Use .da files in package instead of kernel or directory.
Use this option if you have separate machines for build and test
and want to perform the .info file creation on the build
machine. See --to-package for more information.
--gcov-tool tool
Specify the location of the gcov tool.
-h
--help
Print a short help text, then exit.
--ignore-errors errors
Specify a list of errors after which to continue processing.
Use this option to specify a list of one or more classes of
errors after which lcov should continue processing instead of
aborting.
errors can be a comma-separated list of the following keywords:
gcov: the gcov tool returned with a non-zero return code.
source: the source code file for a data set could not be found.
graph: the graph file could not be found or is corrupted.
-i
--initial
Capture initial zero coverage data.
Run lcov with -c and this option on the directories containing
.bb, .bbg or .gcno files before running any test case. The
result is a "baseline" coverage data file that contains zero
coverage for every instrumented line. Combine this data file
(using lcov -a) with coverage data files captured after a test
run to ensure that the percentage of total lines covered is cor‐
rect even when not all source code files were loaded during the
test.
Recommended procedure when capturing data for a test case:
1. create baseline coverage data file
# lcov-c -i -d appdir -o app_base.info
2. perform test
# appdir/test
3. create test coverage data file
# lcov-c -d appdir -o app_test.info
4. combine baseline and test coverage data
# lcov-a app_base.info -a app_test.info -o
app_total.info
-k subdirectory
--kernel-directory subdirectory
Capture kernel coverage data only from subdirectory.
Use this option if you don't want to get coverage data for all
of the kernel, but only for specific subdirectories. This option
may be specified more than once.
Note that you may need to specify the full path to the kernel
subdirectory depending on the version of the kernel gcov sup‐
port.
-l tracefile
--list tracefile
List the contents of the tracefile.
Only one of -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
specified at a time.
--list-full-path
--no-list-full-path
Specify whether to show full paths during list operation.
Use --list-full-path to show full paths during list operation or
--no-list-full-path to show shortened paths. Paths are shortened
by default.
--no-markers
Use this option if you want to get coverage data without regard
to exclusion markers in the source code file. See geninfo (1)
for details on exclusion markers.
--no-recursion
Use this option if you want to get coverage data for the speci‐
fied directory only without processing subdirectories.
-o tracefile
--output-file tracefile
Write data to tracefile instead of stdout.
Specify "-" as a filename to use the standard output.
By convention, lcov-generated coverage data files are called
"tracefiles" and should have the filename extension ".info".
--path path
Strip path from filenames when applying diff.
Use this option together with --diff to tell lcov to disregard
the specified initial path component when matching between
tracefile and diff filenames.
-q
--quiet
Do not print progress messages.
This option is implied when no output filename is specified to
prevent progress messages to mess with coverage data which is
also printed to the standard output.
--rc keyword=value
Override a configuration directive.
Use this option to specify a keyword=value statement which over‐
rides the corresponding configuration statement in the lcovrc
configuration file. You can specify this option more than once
to override multiple configuration statements. See lcovrc(5)
for a list of available keywords and their meaning.
-r tracefile pattern
--remove tracefile pattern
Remove data from tracefile.
Use this switch if you want to remove coverage data for a par‐
ticular set of files from a tracefile. Additional command line
parameters will be interpreted as shell wildcard patterns (note
that they may need to be escaped accordingly to prevent the
shell from expanding them first). Every file entry in tracefile
which matches at least one of those patterns will be removed.
The result of the remove operation will be written to stdout or
the tracefile specified with -o.
Only one of -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
specified at a time.
--strip depth
Strip path components when applying diff.
Use this option together with --diff to tell lcov to disregard
the specified number of initial directories when matching trace‐
file and diff filenames.
--summary tracefile
Show summary coverage information for the specified tracefile.
Note that you may specify this option more than once.
Only one of -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
specified at a time.
-t testname
--test-name testname
Specify test name to be stored in the tracefile.
This name identifies a coverage data set when more than one data
set is merged into a combined tracefile (see option -a).
Valid test names can consist of letters, decimal digits and the
underscore character ("_").
--to-package package
Store .da files for later processing.
Use this option if you have separate machines for build and test
and want to perform the .info file creation on the build
machine. To do this, follow these steps:
On the test machine:
- run the test
- run lcov-c [-d directory] --to-package file
- copy file to the build machine
On the build machine:
- run lcov-c --from-package file [-o and other options]
This works for both kernel and user space coverage data. Note
that you might have to specify the path to the build directory
using -b with either --to-package or --from-package. Note also
that the package data must be converted to a .info file before
recompiling the program or it will become invalid.
-v
--version
Print version number, then exit.
-z
--zerocounters
Reset all execution counts to zero.
By default tries to reset kernel execution counts. Use the
--directory option to reset all counters of a user space pro‐
gram.
Only one of -z, -c, -a, -e, -r, -l, --diff or --summary may be
specified at a time.
FILES
/etc/lcovrc
The system-wide configuration file.
~/.lcovrc
The per-user configuration file.
AUTHOR
Peter Oberparleiter <Peter.Oberparleiter@de.ibm.com>
SEE ALSOlcovrc(5), genhtml(1), geninfo(1), genpng(1), gendesc(1), gcov(1)2015-10-05 LCOV 1.12 lcov(1)
