geninfo(1) User Manuals geninfo(1)
NAME
geninfo - Generate tracefiles from .da files
SYNOPSIS
geninfo [-h|--help] [-v|--version] [-q|--quiet]
[-i|--initial] [-t|--test-name test-name]
[-o|--output-filename filename] [-f|--follow]
[-b|--base-directory directory]
[--checksum] [--no-checksum]
[--compat-libtool] [--no-compat-libtool]
[--gcov-tool tool] [--ignore-errors errors]
directory
DESCRIPTION
geninfo converts all GCOV coverage data files found in directory into
tracefiles, which the genhtml tool can convert to HTML output.
Unless the --output-filename option is specified, geninfo writes its
output to one file per .da file, the name of which is generated by
simply appending ".info" to the respective .da file name.
Note that the current user needs write access to both directory as
well as to the original source code location. This is necessary
because some temporary files have to be created there during the con-
version process.
Note also that geninfo is called from within lcov, so that there is
usually no need to call it directly.
OPTIONS
-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 geninfo produces error messages like:
ERROR: could not read source file
/home/user/project/subdir1/subdir2/subdir1/sub-
dir2/file.c
In this example, use /home/user/project as base directory.
This option is required when using geninfo on projects built
with libtool or similar build environments that work with a
base directory, i.e. environments, where the current working
directory 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 mul-
tiple base directories are used. In that case repeat the gen-
info call for each base directory while using the
--ignore-errors option to prevent geninfo from exiting when the
first source code file could not be found. This way you can get
partial coverage information for each base directory which can
then be combined using the -a option.
--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
combine 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-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, geninfo 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.
-f
--follow
Follow links when searching .da files.
--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 geninfo 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.
-i
--initial
Capture initial zero coverage data.
Run geninfo with 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 correct even when
not all source code files were loaded during the test.
-o output-filename
--output-filename output-filename
Write all data to output-filename.
If you want to have all data written to a single file (for eas-
ier handling), use this option to specify the respective file-
name. By default, one tracefile will be created for each pro-
cessed .da file.
-q
--quiet
Do not print progress messages.
Suppresses all informational progress output. When this switch
is enabled, only error or warning messages are printed.
-t testname
--test-name testname
Use test case name testname for resulting data. Valid test case
names can consist of letters, decimal digits and the underscore
character ('_').
This proves useful when data from several test cases is merged
(i.e. by simply concatenating the respective tracefiles) in
which case a test name can be used to differentiate between
data from each test case.
-v
--version
Print version number, then exit.
FILES
/etc/lcovrc
The system-wide configuration file.
~/.lcovrc
The per-user configuration file.
Following is a quick description of the tracefile format as used by
genhtml, geninfo and lcov.
A tracefile is made up of several human-readable lines of text,
divided into sections. If available, a tracefile begins with the test-
name which is stored in the following format:
TN:<test name>
For each source file referenced in the .da file, there is a section
containing filename and coverage data:
SF:<absolute path to the source file>
Following is a list of line numbers for each function name found in
the source file:
FN:<line number of function start>,<function name>
Then there is a list of execution counts for each instrumented line
(i.e. a line which resulted in executable code):
DA:<line number>,<execution count>[,<checksum>]
Note that there may be an optional checksum present for each instru-
mented line. The current geninfo implementation uses an MD5 hash as
checksumming algorithm.
At the end of a section, there is a summary about how many lines were
found and how many were actually instrumented:
LH:<number of lines with a non-zero execution count>
LF:<number of instrumented lines>
Each sections ends with:
end_of_record
In addition to the main source code file there are sections for all
#included files which also contain executable code.
Note that the absolute path of a source file is generated by inter-
preting the contents of the respective .bb file (see gcov (1) for more
information on this file type). Relative filenames are prefixed with
the directory in which the .bb file is found.
Note also that symbolic links to the .bb file will be resolved so that
the actual file path is used instead of the path to a link. This
approach is necessary for the mechanism to work with the /proc/gcov
files.
AUTHOR
Peter Oberparleiter <Peter.Oberparleiter@de.ibm.com>
SEE ALSO
lcov(1), genhtml(1), genpng(1), gendesc(1), gcov(1)
2003-12-19 lcov 1.6 geninfo(1)
