Provided by: lcov_2.3.1-1_all 
NAME
genhtml - Generate HTML view from LCOV coverage data files
SYNOPSIS
genhtml [-h|--help] [--version]
[-q|--quiet] [-v|--verbose]
[--debug][--validate]
[-s|--show-details]
[-f|--frames]
[-b|--baseline-file baseline-file-pattern]
[-o|--output-directory output-directory]
[--header-title banner]
[--footer string]
[-t|--title title]
[-d|--description-file description-file]
[-k|--keep-descriptions] [-c|--css-file css-file]
[-p|--prefix prefix] [--no-prefix]
[--build-directory directory]
[--source-directory dirname]
[--no-source] [--no-html]
[--num-spaces num] [--highlight]
[--legend] [--html-prolog prolog-file]
[--html-epilog epilog-file] [--html-extension extension]
[--html-gzip] [--sort] [--no-sort]
[--function-coverage] [--no-function-coverage]
[--branch-coverage] [--no-branch-coverage]
[--mcdc-coverage]
[--demangle-cpp [param]]
[--msg-log [log_file_name]]
[--ignore-errors errors]
[--expect-message-count message_type=expr[,message_type=expr..]]
[--keep-going] [--config-file config-file]
[--profile [profile-file]
[--rc keyword=value]
[--precision num] [--missed]
[--merge-aliases]
[--suppress-aliases]
[--forget-test-names]
[--dark-mode]
[--baseline-title title]
[--baseline-date date]
[--current-date date]
[--diff-file diff-file]
[--annotate-script script]
[--context-script script]
[--criteria-script script]
[--version-script script]
[--resolve-script script]
[--select-script script]
[--checksum]
[--fail-under-branches percentage]
[--fail-under-lines percentage]
[--new-file-as-baseline]
[--elide-path-mismatch]
[--synthesize-missing]
[--date-bins day[,day,...]]
[--date-labels string[,string,...]]
[--show-owners [all]]
[--show-noncode]
[--show-zero-columns]
[--show-navigation]
[--show-proportions]
[--simplified-colors]
[--hierarchical] [--flat]
[--filter filters]
[--include glob_pattern]
[--exclude glob_pattern]
[--erase-functions regexp_pattern]
[--substitute regexp_pattern]
[--omit-lines regexp_pattern]
[--parallel|-j [integer]]
[--memory integer_num_Mb]
[--tempdir dirname]
[--preserve]
[--save]
[--serialize serialize_output_file]
tracefile_pattern(s)
DESCRIPTION
genhtml creates an HTML view of coverage data found in tracefiles geninfo and lcov tools which are found
from glob-match pattern(s) tracefile_pattern.
Features include:
• Differential coverage comparison against baseline coverage data
• Annotation of reports with date and owner information ("binning")
The basic concepts of differential coverage and date/owner binning are described in the paper found at
https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.07947
Differential coverage
Differential coverage compares two versions of source code - the baseline and the current versions - and
the coverage results for each to segment the code into categories.
To create a differential coverage report, genhtml requires
1. one or more baseline-files specified via --baseline-file, and
2. a patch file in unified format specified using --diff-file.
Both tracefile_pattern and baseline-file are treated as glob patterns which match one or more files.
The difference in coverage between the set of tracefiles and baseline-files is classified line-by-line
into categories based on changes in 2 aspects:
1. Test coverage results: a line of code can be tested (1), untested (0), or unused (#). An unused line
is a source code line that has no associated coverage data, for example due to a disabled #ifdef
statement.
2. Source code changes: a line can be unchanged, added (+ =>), or removed (=> -). Note that the diff-
file format used by genhtml reports changes in lines as removal of old line and addition of new line.
Below are the resulting 12 categories, sorted by priority (assuming that untested code is more
interesting than tested code, and new code is more interesting than old code):
UNC
Uncovered New Code (+ => 0): newly added code is not tested.
LBC
Lost Baseline Coverage (1 => 0): unchanged code is no longer tested.
UIC
Uncovered Included Code (# => 0): previously unused code is untested.
UBC
Uncovered Baseline Code (0 => 0): unchanged code was untested before, is untested now.
GBC
Gained Baseline Coverage (0 => 1): unchanged code is tested now.
GIC
Gained Included Coverage (# => 1): previously unused code is tested now.
GNC
Gained New Coverage (+ => 1): newly added code is tested.
CBC
Covered Baseline Code (1 => 1): unchanged code was tested before and is still tested.
EUB
Excluded Uncovered Baseline (0 => #): previously untested code is unused now.
ECB
Excluded Covered Baseline (1 => #): previously tested code is unused now.
DUB
Deleted Uncovered Baseline (0 => -): previously untested code has been deleted.
Note: Because these lines are not represented in the current source version, they are only
represented in the classification summary table.
DCB
Deleted Covered Baseline (1 => -): previously tested code has been deleted.
Note: Because these lines are not represented in the current source version, they are only
represented in the classification summary table.
The differential coverage report colorizes categorized regions in the source code view using unique
colors for each. You can use the --simplified-colors option to instead use one color for 'covered' code
and another for 'uncovered'.
Date and owner binning
Date binning annotates coverage reports with age-of-last-change information to distinguish recently added
or modified code which has not been tested from older, presumed stable code which is also not tested.
Owner binning adds annotation identifying the author of changes.
Both age and ownership reporting can be used to enhance team efforts to maintain good coverage discipline
by spotlighting coverage shortfalls in recently modified code, even in the absence of baseline coverage
data.
To enable date and owner binning, the --annotate-script option must be used to specify a script that
provides source code line age and ownership information.
For each source line, age is the interval since the most recent modification date and the owner is the
user identity responsible for the most recent change to that line.
Line coverage overall totals and counts for each of the 12 classification categories are collected for
each of the specified age ranges (see the --date-bins option, below).
Script conventions
Some genhtml options expect the name of an external script or tool as argument. These scripts are then
run as part of the associated function. This includes the following options:
--annotate-script
--context-script
--criteria-script
--resolve-script
--select-script
--version-script
While each script performs a separate function there are some common aspects in the way these options are
handled:
1. If the callback script name ends in .pm then the script is assumed to be a Perl module.
A perl module may offer performance advantages over an external script, as it is compiled once and
loaded into the interpreter and because it can load and maintain internal state.
The module is expected to export a method 'new', which is called with the script name and the script
parameters (if any) as arguments. It is expected to return an object which implements several
standard methods:
$callback_obj = packagename->new(perl_module_file, args);
version-script
$version = $callback_obj->extract_version($source_file_ename);
$match = $callback_obj->check_version($old_version, $new_version, $source_file_name);
$match
is expected to be 1 (true) if the version keys refer to the came file and 0 (false) otherwise.
$version
is a string representing a unique identifier of the particular version of the file
See example implementations $LCOV_HOME/share/lcov/support-scripts/gitversion.pm and
$LCOV_HOME/share/lcov/support-scripts/getp4version.pm.
annotate-script
($status, $array) = $callback_obj->annotate($source_file_name);
where
$status
is 0 if the command succeeded and nonzero otherwise. $status is interpreted in same way as the
return code from 'system(..)'
$array
is a list of line data of the form:
[$text, $abbrev, $full_name, $when, $changelist].
and
$text
is the source text from the corresponding line (without newline termination)
$abbrev
is the "abbreviated author name" responsible for this line of code. This is the name that will
be used in the various HTML tables. For example, for brevity/readability, you may want to strip
the domain from developers who are inside your organization. If there is no associated author,
then the value should be
$full_name
is the "full author name" which is used in annotation tooltips. See the
genhtml_annotate_tooltip entry in man lcovrc(5). $fullname may be undef if the full name and
abbreviated names are the same.
$when
is the timestamp associated with the most recent edit of the corresponding line and may be if
there is no associated time.
$changelist
is the commit identifier associated with the most recent change to this line, or if there isn't
one.
See example implementations $LCOV_HOME/share/lcov/support-scripts/gitblame.pm and
$LCOV_HOME/share/lcov/support-scripts/p4annotate.pm.
context-script
$hash = $callback_obj->context();
where $hash is a reference to a hash of key/value pairs which are meaningful to you. This data is
stored in the profile database. See the 'profile' section in man lcovrc(5) for more information.
If your callback is not a perl module - for example, is a shellscript - then it should return a
string such that the first word on each line is the key and the remainder is the associated data.
If a key is repeated, then the corresponding data strings are concatenated, separated by newline.
If you want to record only system information, then a shell callback is likely sufficient. If you
want to record any tool-specific/internal information, then you will need to implement a perl
module so that your callback will be able to access the information. Note that the constructor of
your context-script callback (or of any callback) can perform any additional actions which are
required - for example, to write additional files, to query or set tool-specific information, etc.
For example, the example implementation, below, has an option to append comments to the generated
.info file.
See the example implementation $LCOV_HOME/share/lcov/support-scripts/context.pm.
criteria-script
($status, $array) = $callback_obj->check_criteria($obj_name, $type, $json);
where
$obj_name
is the source file or directory name, or
$type
is the object type - either
$json
is the coverage data associated with this object, in JSON format - see below.
$status
is the return status of the operation, interpreted the same way as the annotate callback status,
described above.
$array
is a reference to a possibly empty list of strings which will be reported by genhtml. The strings
are are expected to explain why the coverage criteria failed.
See example implementations $LCOV_HOME/share/lcov/support-scripts/criteria.pm.
resolve-script
$newpath = $callback_obj->resolve($source_file_name)
where $newpath is the correct path to the indicated source file or undef if the source file is not
found by the callback.
2. The option may be specified as a single split_char separated string which is divied into words (see
man lcovrc(5) ), or as a list of arguments. The resulting command line is passed to a shell
interpreter to be executed. The command line includes the script path followed by optional additional
parameters separated by spaces. Care must be taken to provide proper quoting if script path or any
parameter contains spaces or shell special characters.
3. If an option is specified multiple times, then the parameters are not split, but are simply
concatenated to form the command line - see the examples, below.
For simplicity and ease of understanding: your command line should pass all arguments individually,
or all as a comma-separated list - not a mix of the two.
4. genhtml passes any additional parameters specified via option arguments between the script path and
the parameters required by the script's function.
Example:
genhtml --annotate-script /bin/script.sh
--annotate-script arg0 ...
results in the same callback as
genhtml --annotate-script "/bin/script.sh arg0" ...
or
genhtml --annotate-script /bin/script.sh,arg0 ...
Note that the first form is preferred.
The resulting genhtml callback executes the command line:
/bin/script.sh arg0 source_file_name
Similarly
genhtml --annotate-script /bin/myMoodule.pm
--annotate-script arg0 --annotate-script arg1 ...
or
genhtml --annotate-script /bin/myMoodule.pm,arg0,arg1
result in genhtml executing
$annotateCallback = myModule->new(arg0, arg1);
to initialize the class object - arg0 and arg1 passed as strings - and then to execute
($status, $arrayRef) = $annotateCallback( source_file_name );
to retrieve the annotation information.
In contrast, the command
genhtml --annotate-script /bin/myMoodule.pm
--annotate-script arg0,arg1 ...
would result in genhtml initializing the callback object via
$annotateCallback = myModule->new("arg0,arg1");
where "arg0,arg1" is passed as single comma-separated string.
Similarly, the command
genhtml --annotate-script /bin/myMoodule.pm,arg0
--annotate-script arg1 ...
would very likely result in an error when genhtml tries to find a script called "/bin/mymodule.pm,arg0".
Note that multiple instances of each script may execute simultaneously if the --parallel option was
specified. Therefore each script must either be reentrant or should arrange for its own synchronization,
if necessary.
In particular, if your callback is implemented via a perl module:
- the class object associated with the module will initialized once (in the parent process)
- The callback will occur in the child process (possibly simultaneously with other child processes).
As a result: if your callback needs to pass data back to the parent, you will need to arrange a
communication mechanism to do so.
Additional considerations
If the --criteria-script option is used, genhtml will use the referenced script to determine whether your
coverage criteria have been met - and will return a non-zero status and print a message if the criteria
are not met.
The --version-script option is used to verify that the same/compatible source code versions are displayed
as were used to capture coverage data, as well as to verify that the same source code was used to capture
coverage information which is going to be merged and to verify that the source version used for filtering
operations is compatible with the version used to generate the data.
HTML output files are created in the current working directory unless the --output-directory option is
used. If tracefile or baseline-file ends with ".gz", it is assumed to be GZIP-compressed and the gunzip
tool will be used to decompress it transparently.
Note that all source code files have to be present and readable at the exact file system location they
were compiled, and all path references in the input data ".info" and "diff" files must match exactly
(i.e., exact string match).
Further, the --version-script, --annotate-script, and --criteria-script scripts use the same path
strings. However, see the --substitute and --resolve-script options for a mechanism to adjust extracted
paths so they match your source and/or revision control layout.
You can use the check_exisitence_before_callback configuration option to tell the tool to check that the
file exists before calling the --version-script or --annotate-script callback. See man lcovrc(5) for
details.
Additional options
Use option --diff-file to supply a unified diff file that represents the changes to the source code files
between the version used to compile and capture the baseline trace files, and the version used to compile
and capture the current trace files.
Use option --css-file to modify layout and colors of the generated HTML output. Files are marked in
different colors depending on the associated coverage rate.
By default, the coverage limits for low, medium and high coverage are set to 0-75%, 75-90% and 90-100%
percent respectively. To change these values, use configuration file options.
genhtml_hi_limit and genhtml_med_limit
or type-specific limits:
genhtml_line_hi_limit and genhtml_line_med_limit
genhtml_branch_hi_limit and genhtml_branch_med_limit
genhtml_function_hi_limit and genhtml_function_med_limit
See man lcovrc(5) for details.
Also note that when displaying 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.
By default, genhtml reports will include both line and function coverage data. Neither branch or MC/DC
data is displayed by default; you can use the --branch-coverage and --mcdc-coverage options to enable
branch or MC/DC coverage, respectively - or you can permanently enable branch coverage by adding the
appropriate settings to your personal, group, or site lcov configuration file. See the branch_coverage
and mcdc_coverage sections of man lcovrc(5) for details.
OPTIONS
In general, (almost) all genhtml options can also be specified in your personal, group, project, or site
configuration file - see man lcovrc(5) for details.
-h
--help
Print a short help text, then exit.
--version
Print version number, then exit.
-v
--verbose
Increment informational message verbosity. This is mainly used for script and/or flow debugging -
e.g., to figure out which data files are found, where. Also see the --quiet flag.
-q
--quiet
Decrement informational message verbosity.
Decreased verbosity will suppress 'progress' messages for example - while error and warning
messages will continue to be printed.
--debug
Increment 'debug messages' verbosity. This is useful primarily to developers who want to enhance
the lcov tool suite.
--validate
Check the generated HTML to verify that there are no dead hyperlinks and no unused files in the
output directory. The checks can also be enabled by setting environment variable LCOV_VALIDATE =
1. This option is primarily intended for use by developers who modify the HTML report.
--flat
--hierarchical
Use the specified HTML report hierarchy layout.
The default HTML report is 3 levels:
1. top-level: table of all directories,
2. directory: table of source files in a directory, and
3. source file detail: annotated source code.
Option --hierarchical produces a multilevel report which follows the directory structure of the
source code (similar to the file tool in Microsoft Windows).
Option --flat produces a two-level HTML report:
1. top-level: table of all project source files, and
2. source file detail: annotated source code.
The 'flat' view can reduce the number of clicks required to navigate around the coverage report -
but is unwieldy except for rather small projects consisting of only a few source files. It can be
useful in 'code review' mode, even for very large projects (see the --select-script option).
Most large projects follow a rational directory structure - which favors the 'hierarchical' report
format. Teams responsible for a particular module can focus on a specific subdirectory or set of
subdirectories.
Only one of options --flat or --hierarchical can be specified at the same time.
These options can also be persistently set via the lcovrc configuration file using either:
genhtml_hierarchical = 1
or
genhtml_flat_view = 1
See man lcovrc(5) for details.
-f
--frames
Use HTML frames for source code view.
If enabled, a frameset is created for each source code file, providing an overview of the source
code as a "clickable" image. Note that this option will slow down output creation noticeably
because each source code character has to be inspected once. Note also that the GD.pm Perl module
has to be installed for this option to work (it may be obtained from http://www.cpan.org).
This option can also be controlled from the genhtml_frames entry of the lcovrc file.
Please note that there is a bug in firefox and in chrome, such that enabling frames will disable
hyperlinks from the 'directory' level summary table entry to the first line in the corresponding
file in the particular category - e.g., to the first 'MIS' line (vanilla coverage report - see the
option, below), to the first 'UNC' branch (differential coverage report), etc. Hyperlinks from
the summary table at the top of the 'source detail' page are not affected.
-s
--show-details
Generate detailed directory view.
When this option is enabled, genhtml generates two versions of each source file file entry in the
corresponding summary table:
one containing the standard information plus a link to a "detailed" version, and
a second which contains the number of coverpoints in the hit by each testcase.
Note that missed coverpoints are not shown in the per-testcase table entry data.
The corresponding summary table is found on the 'directory' page of the default 3-level genthm
report, or on the top-level page of the 'flat' report (see genhtml --flat ... ), or on the parent
directory page of the 'hierarchical' report (see genhtml --hierarchical ... ).
Note that this option may significantly increase memory consumption.
-b baseline-file-pattern
--baseline-file baseline-file-pattern
Use data in the files found from glob pattern baseline-file-pattern as coverage baseline.
--baseline-file may be specified multiple times - for example, if you have multiple trace data
files for each of several test suites and you do not want to go through the additional step of
merging all of them into a single aggregated data file.
The coverage data files specified by baseline-file-pattern is read and used as the baseline for
classifying the change in coverage represented by the coverage counts in tracefile-patterns. If
baseline-file-pattern is a directory, then genhtml will search the directory for all files ending
in '.info'. See the info_file_extension section in man(5) lcovrc for how to change this pattern.
In general, you should specify a diff file in unified diff format via --diff-file when you specify
a --baseline-file-pattern. Without a diff file, genhtml will assume that there are no source
differences between 'baseline' and 'current'. For example: this might be used to find
incremental changes caused by the addition of more testcases, or to compare coverage results
between gcc versions, or between gcc and llvm.
--baseline-title title
Use title as the descriptive label text for the source of coverage baseline data.
--baseline-date date
Use date as the collection date in text format for the coverage baseline data. If this argument
is not specified, the default is to use the creation time of the first file matched by
baseline-file-pattern as the baseline date. If there are multiple baseline files, then the
creation date of the first file is used.
--current-date date
Use date as the collection date in text format for the coverage baseline data. If this argument
is not specified, the default is to use the creation time of the current tracefile.
--diff-file diff-file
Use the diff-file as the definition for source file changes between the sample points for
baseline-file-pattern and tracefile(s).
Note:
- if filters are applied during the creation of a differential coverage report, (see the ,I
--filter section, below), then those filters will be applied to the baseline coverage data (see
the --baseline-file section, above) as well as to the current coverage data. It is important
that the diff-file accurately reflect all source code changes so that the baseline coverage
data can be correctly filtered.
- Best practice is to use a --version-script callback to verify that source versions match before
source-based filtering is applied.
It is almost always a better idea to filter at capture or aggregate time - not at report
generation.
A suitable diff-file can be generated using the command:
git diff --relative <SHA_base> <SHA_current>
or using the "p4udiff" or "gitdiff" sample scripts that are provided as part of this package in
the following locations:
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/p4udiff
and
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/gitdiff
p4udiff accepts either a changelist ID or the literal string "sandbox"; "sandbox" indicates that
there are modified files which have not been checked in.
These scripts post-process the 'p4' or 'git' output to (optionally) remove files that are not of
interest and to explicitly note files which have not changed. It is useful to note unchanged
files denoted by lines of the form:
diff [optional header strings]
=== file_path
in the p4diff/gitdiff output as this knowledge will help to suppress spurious 'path mismatch'
warnings. See the --elide-path-mismatch and --build-directory entries, below.
In general, you will specify --baseline-file when you specify --diff-file. The baseline_files are
used to compute coverage differences ( e.g. gains and losses) between the baseline and current,
where the diff_file is used to compute code changes: source text is identical between 'baseline'
and 'current'. If you specify baseline_files but no diff_file, the tool will assume that there
are no code changes between baseline and current. If you specify a diff_file but no
baseline_files, the tool will assume that there is no baseline coverage data (no baseline code was
covered); as result unchanged code ( i.e., which does not appear in the diff_file will be
categorized as eiher GIC (covered) or UIC (not covered) while new or changed code will be
categorized as either GNC or UNC.
--annotate-script script
Use script to get source code annotation data.
Use this option to specify an external tool or command line that genhtml can use to obtain source
code annotation data such as age and author of the last change for each source code line.
This option also instructs genhtml to add a summary table to the HTML report header that shows
counts in the various coverage categories, associated with each date bin. In addition, each source
code line will show age and owner information. Annotation data is also used to populate a
'tooltip' which appears when the mouse hovers over the associated source code. See the
genhtml_annotate_tooltip entry in man lcovrc(5) for details.
The specified script is expected to obtain age and ownership information for each source code line
from the revision management system and to output this information in the format described below.
If the annotate script fails and annotation errors are ignored via --ignore-errors, then genhtml
will try to load the source file normally. If the file is not present or not readable, and the
--synthesize-missing flag is specified, then genhtml will synthesize fake data for the file.
genhtml will emit an error if you have specified an annotation script but no files are
successfully annotated (see below). This can happen, for example, if your P4USER, P4CLIENT, or
P4PORT environment variables are not set correctly - e.g. if the Jenkins user who generates
coverage reports is not the same and the user who checked out the code and owns the sandbox.
Sample annotation scripts for Perforce ("p4annotate") and git ("gitblame") are provided as part of
this package in the following locations:
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/p4annotate
and
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/gitblame
Note that these scripts generate annotations from the file version checked in to the repository -
not the locally modified file in the build directory. If you need annotations for locally
modified files, you can shelve your changes in P4, or check them in to a local branch in git.
Creating your own script
When creating your own script, please first see Script considerations above for general calling
conventions and script requirements.
script is called by genhtml with the following command line:
script [additional_parameters] source_file_name
where
script
is the script executable
additional_parameters
includes any optional parameters specified (see Script conventions above)
source_file_name
is the source code file name
The script executable should output a line to the standard output stream in the following format
for each line in file source_file_name:
commit_id|author_data|date|source_code
where
commit_id
is an ID identifying the last change to the line or NONE if this file is not checked
in to your revision control system.
genhtml counts the file as not 'successfully annotated' if commit_id is NONE and as
'successfully annotated' otherwise.
author_data
identifies the author of the last change.
For backward compatibility with existing annotate-script implementations, two
author_data formats are supported:
- string : the string used as both the 'abbreviated name' (used as 'owner' name in
HTML output and callbacks) and as 'full name' (used in tooltip callbacks)
- abbrev_string;full_name : the author_data string contains both an 'abbreviated
name' and a 'full name' - separated by a semicolon character (';').
This is useful when generating coverage reports for opensource software
components where there are many 'External' contributors who you do not want to
distinguish in 'owner' summary tables but you still want to know who the actual
author was. (See the gitblame callback script for an example.)
date
is the data of last change in W3CDTF format (<YYYY>-<MM>-<DD>T<hh>:<mm>:<ss><TZD>)
source_code
is the line's source code
The script should return 0 (zero) if processing was successful and non-zero if it encountered an
error.
--criteria-script script
Use script to test for coverage acceptance criteria.
Use this option to specify an external tool or command line that genhtml can use to determine if
coverage results meet custom acceptance criteria. Criteria checking results are shown in the
standard output log of genhtml. If at least one check fails, genhtml will exit with a non-zero
exit code after completing its processing.
A sample coverage criteria script is provided as part of this package in the following location:
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/criteria
The sample script checks that top-level line coverage meets the criteria "UNC + LBC + UIC == 0"
(added code and newly activated code must be tested, and existing tested code must not become
untested).
As another example, it is possible to create scripts that mimic the lcov --fail-under-lines
feature by checking that the ratio of exercised lines to total lines ("(GNC + GIC + CBC) / (GNC +
GIC + CBC + UNC + UIC + UBC)") is greater than the threshold - either only at the top level, in
every directory, or wherever desired. Similarly, criteria may include branch and function coverage
metrics.
By default the criteria script is called for all source code hierarchy levels, i.e.: top-level,
directory, and file-level. The criteria_callback_levels configuration file option can be used to
limit the hierarchy levels to any combination of 'top', 'directory', or 'file' levels.
Example:
genhtml --rc criteria_callback_levels=directory,top ...
You can increase the amount of data passed to the criteria script using configuration file option
criteria_callback_data. By default, only total counts are included. Specifying "date" adds per
date-bin counts, "owner" adds per owner-bin counts.
Example:
genhtml --rc criteria_callback_data=date,owner ...
See man lcovrc(5) for more details.
Creating your own script
When creating your own script, please first see Script considerations above for general calling
conventions and script requirements.
script is run with the following command line for each source code file, leaf-directory, and top-
level coverage results:
script [additional_parameters] name type coverage_data
where
script
is the script executable
additional_parameters
includes any optional parameters specified (see Script conventions above)
name
is the name of the object for which coverage criteria should be checked, that is
either the source code file name, directory name, or "top" if the script is called
for top-level data
type
is the type of source code object for which coverage criteria should be checked,
that is one of "file", "directory", or "top"
coverage_data
is either a coverage data hash or a JSON representation of coverage data hash of the
corresponding source code object. If the callback is a Perl module, then the it is
passes a hash object - other wise, it is passed a JSON representation of that data.
The JSON data format is defined as follows:
{
"<type>": {
"found": <count>,
"hit": <count>,
"<category>": <count>,
...
},
"<bin_type>": {
"<bin_id>" : {
"found": <count>,
"hit": <count>,
"<category>": <count>,
...
},
...
},
...
}
where
type
specifies the type of coverage as one of "line", "function", or "branch"
bin_type
specifies the type of per-bin coverage as one of "line_age", "function_age", or
"branch_age" for date-bin data, and "line_owners" or "branch_owners" for owner-bin
data
bin_id
specifies the date-bin index for date-bin data, and owner ID for owner-bin data.
found
defines the number of found lines, functions, or branches
hit
defines the number of hit lines, functions, or branches
category
defines the number of lines, functions, or branches that fall in the specified
category (see Differential coverage above)
Note that data is only reported for non-empty coverage types and bins.
The script should return 0 (zero) if the criteria are met and non-zero otherwise.
If desired, it may print a single line output string which will be appended to the error log if
the return status is non-zero. Additionally, non-empty lines are appended to the genhtml standard
output log.
--version-script script
Use script to get source code file version data.
Use this option to specify an external tool or command line that genhtml can use to obtain a
source code file's version ID when generating HTML or applying source filters (see --filter
option).
A version ID can be a file hash or commit ID from revision control. It is used to check the
version of the source file which is loaded against the version which was used to generate coverage
data (i.e., the file version seen by lcov/geninfo). It is important that source code versions
match - otherwise inconsistent or confusing results may be produced.
Version mismatches typically happen when the tasks of capture, aggregation, and report generation
are split between multiple jobs - e.g., when the same source code is used in multiple projects, a
unified/global coverage report is required, and the projects accidentally use different revisions.
If your .info (coverage data) file does not contain version information - for example, because it
was generated by a tool which did not support versioning - then you can use the
compute_file_version = 1 config file option to generate the data afterward. A convenient way to
do this might be to use lcov --add-tracefile to read the original file, insert version
information, and write out the result. See man lcovrc(5) for more details.
Sample scripts for Perforce ("getp4version"), git ("gitversion") and using an md5 hash
("get_signature") are provided as part of this package in the following locations:
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/getp4version
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/gitversion
and
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/get_signature
Note that you must use the same script/same mechanism to determine the file version when you
extract, merge, and display coverage data - otherwise, you may see spurious mismatch reports.
Creating your own script
When creating your own script, please first see Script considerations above for general calling
conventions and script requirements.
script is used both to generate and to compare the version ID to enable retaining history between
calls or to do more complex processing to determine equivalence. It will be called by genhtml
with either of the following command lines:
1. Determine source file version ID
script source_file_name
It should write the version ID of source_file_name to stdout and return a 0 exit status. If the
file is not versioned, it should write an empty string and return a 0 exit status.
2. Compare source file version IDs
script --compare source_file_name source_file_id
info_file_id
where
source_file_name
is the source code file name
source_file_id
is the version ID returned by calling "script source_file_name"
info_file_id
is the version ID found in the corresponding .info file
It should return non-zero if the IDs do not match.
--resolve-script script
Use script to find the file path for some source file which which appears in an input data file if
the file is not found after applying --substitute patterns and searching the --source-directory
list. This option is equivalent to the resolve_script config file option. See man lcovrc(5) for
details.
--select-script callback
Use callback to decide whether a particular source line is interesting and should be included in
the output data/generated report or not.
This option is equivalent to the select_script config file option. See man lcovrc(5) for details.
--checksum
Specify whether to compare stored tracefile checksum to checksum computed from the source code.
Checksum verification is disabled by default.
When checksum verification is enabled, a checksum will be computed for each source code line and
compared to the checksum found in the 'current' tracefile. This will help to prevent attempts to
display source code which is not identical to the code used to generate the coverage data.
Note that this option is somewhat subsumed by the --version-script option - which does something
similar, but at the 'whole file' level.
--fail-under-branches percentage
Use this option to tell genhtml to exit with a status of 1 if the total branch coverage is less
than percentage. See man lcov(1) for more details.
--fail-under-lines percentage
Use this option to tell genhtml to exit with a status of 1 if the total line coverage is less than
percentage. See man lcov(1) for more details.
--new-file-as-baseline
By default, when code is identified on source lines in the 'current' data which were not
identified as code in the 'baseline' data, but the source text has not changed, their coverpoints
are categorized as "included code": GIC or UIC.
However, if the configuration of the coverage job has been recently changed to instrument
additional files, then all un-exercised coverpoints in those files will fall into the GIC category
- which may cause certain coverage criteria checks to fail.
When this option is specified, genhtml pretends that the baseline data for the file is the same as
the current data - so coverpoints are categorized as CBC or UBC which do not trigger the coverage
criteria check.
Please note that coverpoints in the file are re-categorized only if:
• There is no 'baseline' data for any coverpoint in this file, AND
• The file pre-dates the baseline: the oldest line in the file is older than the
'baseline' data file (or the value specified by the --baseline-date option).
--elide-path-mismatch
Differential categorization uses file pathnames to match coverage entries from the ".info" file
with file difference entries in the unified-diff-file. If the entries are not identical, then
categorization may be incorrect or strange.
When paths do not match, genhtml will produce "path" error messages to tell you about the
mismatches.
If mismatches occur, the best solution is to fix the incorrect entries in the .info and/or
unified-diff-file files. However, fixing these entries is not possible, then you can use this
option to attempt to automatically work around them.
When this option is specified, genhtml will pretend that the unified-diff-file entry matches the
.info file entries if:
• the same path is found in both the 'baseline' and 'current' .info files, and
• the basename of the path in the .info file and the path in the unified-diff-file are the
same, and
• there is only one unmatched unified-diff-file entry with that basename.
See the --diff-file and --build-directory entries for a discussion of how to avoid spurious
warnings and/or incorrect matches.
--synthesize-missing
Generate (fake) file content if source file does not exist. This option can be used to work
around otherwise fatal annotation errors.
When generating annotated file content, genhtml assumes that the source was written 'now' (so age
is zero), the author is no.body and the commit ID is synthesized. These names and ages will
appear in your HTML reports.
This option is equivalent config file genhtml_synthesize_missing parameter; see man lcovrc(5) for
details.
--date-bins day[,day,...]
The --date-bins option is used to specify age boundaries (cutpoints) for date-binning
classification. Each age element is expected to be an integer number of days prior to today (or
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH, if specified). If not specified, the default is to use 4 age ranges: less than
7 days, 7 to 30 days, 30 to 180 days, and more than 180 days. This option is equivalent to the
genhtml_date_bins config file option. See man lcovrc(5).
This argument has no effect if there is no source-annotation-script .
--date-labels string[,string,...]
The --date-labels option is used to specify labels used for the 'date-bin' table entries in the
HTML report.
The number of labels should be one greater than the number of cutpoints.
If not specified, the default is to use label strings which specify the [from ..to) range of ages
held by the corresponding bin.
One possible use of this option is to use release names in the tables - i.e., to indicate the
release in which each particular line first appeared.
This option is equivalent to the genhtml_date_labels config file option. See man lcovrc(5).
This argument has no effect if there is no source-annotation-script .
--show-owners [all]
If the --show-owners option is used, each coverage report header report contain a summary table,
showing counts in the various coverage categories for everyone who appears in the revision control
annotation as the most recent editor of the corresponding line. If the optional argument 'all' is
not specified, the table will show only users who are responsible for un-exercised code lines. If
the optional argument is specified, then users responsible for any code lines will appear. In
both cases, users who are responsible for non-code lines (e.g, comments) are not shown. This
option does nothing if --annotate-script is not used; it needs revision control information
provided by calling the script.
Please note: if the all option is not specified, the summary table will contain "Total" rows for
all date/owner bins which are not empty - but there will be no secondary "File/Directory" entries
for elements which have no "missed" coverpoints.
This option is equivalent config file genhtml_show_owner_table parameter; see man lcovrc(5) for
details.
The lcovrc controls owner_table_entries and truncate_owner_table can be used to improve
readability by limiting the number of authors who are displayed in the table when the author
number is large. For example, if your configuration is:
owner_table_entries = 5
truncate_owner_table = top,directory
then the owner table displayed at the top- and directory-levels will be truncated while the table
shown at the 'file' level will display the full list.
See man lcovrc(5) for details.
--show-noncode
By default, the source code detail view does not show owner or date annotations in the far-left
column for non-code lines (e.g., comments). If the --show-noncode option is used, then the source
code view will show annotations for both code and non-code lines. This argument has no effect if
there is no source-annotation-script .
This option is equivalent config file genhtml_show_noncode_owners parameter; see man lcovrc(5) for
details.
--show-zero-columns
By default, columns whose entries are all zero are removed (not shown) in the summary table at the
top of each HTML page. If the --show-zero-columns option is used, then those columns will be
shown.
When columns are retained, then all the tables have the same width/contain the same number of
columns - which may be a benefit in some situations.
When columns are removed, then the tables are more compact and easier to read. This is especially
true in relatively mature development environments, when there are very few un-exercised
coverpoints in the project.
--show-navigation
By default, the summary table in the source code detail view does not contain hyperlinks from the
number to the first line in the corresponding category ('Hit' or 'Missed') and from the current
location to the next location in the current category, in non-differential coverage reports.
(This is the lcov 'legacy' view non-differential reports.)
If the --show-navigation option is used, then the source code summary table will be generated with
navigation links. Hyperlinks are always generated for differential coverage reports.
This feature enables developers to find and understand coverage issues more quickly than they
might otherwise, if they had to rely on scrolling.
See the --frames description above for a description of a browser bug which disables these
hyperlinks in certain conditions.
Navigation hyperlinks are always enabled in differential coveage report.
--show-proportions
In the 'function coverage detail' table, also show the percentage of lines and branches within the
function which are exercised.
This feature enables developers to focus attention on functions which have the largest effect on
overall code coverage.
This feature is disabled by default. Note that this option requires that you use a compiler
version which is new enough to support function begin/end line reports or that you configure the
tool to derive the required data - see the derive_function_end_line discussion in man lcovrc(5).
--simplified-colors
By default, each differential category is colorized uniquely in the source code detail view. With
this option, only two colors are used: one for covered code and another for uncovered code. Note
that ECB and EUB code is neither covered nor uncovered - and so may be difficult to distinguish in
the source code view, as they will be presented in normal background color.
--exclude pattern
pattern is a glob-match pattern of filenames to exclude from the report. Files which do NOT match
will be included. See the lcov man page for details.
--include pattern
pattern is a glob-match pattern of filenames to include in processing. Files which do not match
will be excluded from the report. See the lcov man page for details.
--erase-functions regexp
Exclude coverage data from lines which fall within a function whose name matches the supplied
regexp. Note that this is a mangled or demangled name, depending on whether the --demangle-cpp
option is used or not.
Note that this option requires that you use a compiler version which is new enough to support
function begin/end line reports or that you configure the tool to derive the required data - see
the derive_function_end_line discussion in man lcovrc(5).
--substitute regexp_pattern
Apply Perl regexp regexp_pattern to source file names found during processing. This is useful
when some file paths in the baseline or current .info file do not match your source layout and so
the source code is not found. See the lcov man page for more details.
Note that the substitution patterns are applied to the --diff-file entries as well as the baseline
and current .info files.
--omit-lines regexp_pattern
Exclude coverage data from lines whose content matches regexp.
Use this switch if you want to exclude line and branch coverage data for some particular
constructs in your code (e.g., some complicated macro). See the lcov man page for details.
--parallel [ integer ]
-j [ integer ]
Specify parallelism to use during processing (maximum number of forked child processes). If the
optional integer parallelism parameter is zero or is missing, then use to use up the number of
cores on the machine. Default is not to use a single process (no parallelism).
Also see the memory, memory_percentage, max_fork_fails and fork_fail_timeout entries in man
lcovrc(5).
--memory integer
Specify the maximum amount of memory to use during parallel processing, in Mb. Effectively, the
process will not fork() if this limit would be exceeded. Default is 0 (zero) - which means that
there is no limit.
This option may be useful if the compute farm environment imposes strict limits on resource
utilization such that the job will be killed if it tries to use too many parallel children - but
the user does not know a priori what the permissible maximum is. This option enables the tool to
use maximum parallelism - up to the limit imposed by the memory restriction.
The configuration file memory_percentage option provided another way to set the maximum memory
consumption. See man lcovrc (5) for details.
--filter filters
Specify a list of coverpoint filters to apply to input data.
Note that certain filters apply only to C/C++ source files. genhtml associates the file extension
('.c', '.vhd', etc. ) with its source language. See the c_file_extentions and
rtl_file_extensions sections of man lcovrc(5) for a description of the default associations and
how they can be changed.
Note that filters are applied to both 'branch' and 'MC/DC' coverpoints, where appropriate: if a
particular filter would remove some branch, then it will also remove corresponding MC/DC
coverpoints - for example, --filter branch will remove MC/DC coverpoints if there is no
conditional expression on the corresponding line, and --filter branch_region will remove both
branch and MC/DC coverpoints in the marked region.
Most filters need the source code; filters are not applied if the source file is not available.
Similarly, for each source file, if the version recorded in the coverage data (the '.info' file)
does not match the version found on the filesystem, then a version error is reported. If the
version error is ignored, then filtering is not applied to the mismatched file. See the
--version-script for more information.
filters can be a comma-separated list of the following keywords:
branch:
ignore branch counts for C/C++ source code lines which do not appear to contain conditionals.
These may be generated automatically by the compiler (e.g., from C++ exception handling) - and
are not interesting to users. This option has no effect unless --branch-coverage is used.
See also man lcovrc(5) - which describes several variables which affect branch filtering:
filter_lookahead and filter_bitwise_conditional.
The most common use for branch filtering is to remove compiler-generated branches related to
C++ exception handlers. See the no_exception_branch' option in man lcovrc(5) for a way to
remove all identified exception branches.
brace:
ignore line coverage counts on the closing brace of C/C++ code block, if the line contains only
a closing brace and the preceding line has the same count or if the close brace has a zero
count and either the preceding line has a non-zero count, or the close brace is not the body of
a conditional.
These lines seem to appear and disappear in gcov output - and cause differential coverage to
report bogus LBC and/or GIC and/or UIC counts. Bogus LBC or UIC counts are a problem because
an automated regression which uses pass criteria "LBC + UIC + UNC == 0" will fail.
blank:
ignore lines which contain only whitespace (or whitespace + comments) whose 'hit' count is
zero. These appear to be a 'gcov' artifact related to compiler-generated code - such as
exception handlers and destructor calls at the end of scope - and can confuse differential
coverage criteria.
If lcovrc option filter_blank_aggressive = 1 is enabled, then blank lines will be ignored
whether their 'hit' count is zero or not. Aggressive filtering may be useful in LLVM-generated
coverage data, which tends to include large numbers of such lines.
directive:
ignore lines which look like C compiler directives: #ifdef, #include, #define, etc. These
lines are sometimes included by llvm-cov when LLVM profile data is translated to LCOV format.
exception:
Exclude branches related to C++ exception handling from branch coverage. Whether C++ exception
branches are identified and removed is dependent on your compiler/toolchain correctly marking
them in the generated coverage data. See the no_exception_branch section of man lcovrc(5).
initializer:
Exclude lines which appear to be part of a C++ std::initializer_list.
line:
alias for "--filter brace,blank".
mcdc:
Remove MC/DC coverpoint which contains single expression, if 'branch' coverpoint is present on
the same line. Singe-element MC/DC coverpoints are identical to the corresponding branch -
except in the case of compile-time expression evaluation, for example, in a template function.
orphan:
Remove branches which appear by themselves - i.e., the branch has only one destination and so
cannot be a conditional.
These occur most frequently as a result of exception branch filtering.
range:
Ignore line and branch coverpoints on lines which are out-of range/whose line number is beyond
the end of the source file. These appear to be gcov artifacts caused by a macro instantiation
on the last line of the file.
region:
apply LCOV_EXCL_START/LCOV_EXCL_STOP directives found in source text to the coverpoints found
in the current and baseline .info files. This option may be useful in cases that the source
code was not found during 'lcov --capture ...' but is accessible now.
branch_region:
apply LCOV_EXCL_BR_START/LCOV_EXCL_BR_STOP directives found in source text to the coverpoints
found in the current and baseline .info files. This is similar to the 'region option, above -
but applies to branch coverpoints only.
function:
combine data for every "unique" function which is defined at the same file/line. geninfo/gcov
seem to have a bug such that they create multiple entries for the same function. This feature
also merges all instances of the same template function/template method.
trivial:
remove trivial functions and associated coverpoints. 'Trivial' functions are whose body is
empty/do not contain any statements. Commonly, these include compiler-generated methods (e.g.,
default constructors and assignment operators) as well as static initialization wrappers, etc.
Note that the trivial filter requires function end line information - and so requires that you
use a compiler version which is new enough to support begin/end line reports ( e.g., gcc/9 or
newer) or that you enable lcov/genhtml/geninfo to derive the information:
In man lcovrc(5), see the derive_function_end_line setting as well as the
trivial_function_threshold setting. The former is used to turn end line calculation on or off,
and the latter to change the lookahead used to determine whether the function body is empty.
Also see the lcov_filter_parallel and lcov_filter_chunk_size settings, which may improve CPU
performance if the number of files to process is very large.
-o output-directory
--output-directory output-directory
Create files in output-directory.
Use this option to tell genhtml to write the resulting files to a directory other than the current
one. If output-directory does not exist, it will be created.
It is advisable to use this option since depending on the project size, a lot of files and
subdirectories may be created.
-t title
--title title
Display title in header table of all pages.
title is written to the "Test:"-field in the header table at the top of each generated HTML page
to identify the context in which a particular output was created. By default, this is the name of
the 'current; tracefile.
A common use is to specify a test run name, or a version control system identifier (perforce
changelist or git SHA, for example) that indicates the code level that was tested.
--header-title BANNER
Display BANNER in header of all pages.
BANNER is written to the header portion of each generated HTML page. By default, this simply
identifies this as an LCOV (differential) coverage report.
A common use is to specify the name of the project or project branch and the Jenkins build ID.
--footer FOOTER
Display FOOTER in footer of all pages.
FOOTER is written to the footer portion of each generated HTML page. The default simply
identifies the LCOV tool version used to generate the report.
-d description-file
--description-file description-file
Read test case descriptions from description-file.
All test case descriptions found in description-file and referenced in the input data file are
read and written to an extra page which is then incorporated into the HTML output.
The file format of description-file is:
for each test case:
TN:<testname>
TD:<test description>
Valid test case names can consist of letters, numbers and the underscore character ('_').
-k
--keep-descriptions
Do not remove unused test descriptions.
Keep descriptions found in the description file even if the coverage data indicates that the
associated test case did not cover any lines of code.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_keep_descriptions.
-c css-file
--css-file css-file
Use external style sheet file css-file.
Using this option, an extra .css file may be specified which will replace the default one. This
may be helpful if the default colors make your eyes want to jump out of their sockets :)
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_css_file.
--build-directory dirname
To support 'linked build directory' structures, add 'dirname' to the list of places to search for
soft links to source files - e.g., to handle the case that the links point to source files which
are held in your revision control system, and appear in the --diff-file data. In this use case,
paths in the coverage data very likely refer to the structure seen by the compiler during the
build - so resolving them back to the corresponding revsion-controlled source structure is likely
to be successful.
Look in dirname for file paths which appear in tracefile - possibly after substitutions have been
applied - which are soft links. Both the original file path and the path to the linked file will
resolve to the same --diff-file entry.
This option can be specified multiple times, to add more directories to the search path.
--source-directory dirname
Add 'dirname' to the list of places to look for source files.
For relative source file paths e.g. paths found in tracefile, or in diff-file - possibly after
substitutions have been applied - genhtml will first look for the path from 'cwd' (where genhtml
was invoked) and then from each alternate directory name in the order specified. The first
location matching location is used.
This option can be specified multiple times, to add more directories to the source search path.
-p prefix
--prefix prefix
Remove prefix from all directory names.
Because lists containing long filenames are difficult to read, there is a mechanism implemented
that will automatically try to shorten all directory names on the overview page beginning with a
common prefix. By default, this is done using an algorithm that tries to find the prefix which,
when applied, will minimize the resulting sum of characters of all directory names.
Use this option to specify the prefix to be removed by yourself.
--no-prefix
Do not remove prefix from directory names.
This switch will completely disable the prefix mechanism described in the previous section.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_no_prefix.
--no-source
Do not create source code view.
Use this switch if you don't want to get a source code view for each file.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_no_source.
--no-html
Do not create HTML report.
Use this switch if you want some artifact of coverage report generation - e.g., the coverage
criteria check or the serialized coverage DB, etc. - but do not need the coverage report HTML
itself.
--num-spaces spaces
Replace tabs in source view with num spaces.
Default value is 8.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_num_spaces.
--highlight
Highlight lines with converted-only coverage data.
Use this option in conjunction with the --diff option of lcov to highlight those lines which were
only covered in data sets which were converted from previous source code versions.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_highlight.
--legend
Include color legend in HTML output.
Use this option to include a legend explaining the meaning of color coding in the resulting HTML
output.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option genhtml_legend.
--html-prolog prolog-file
Read customized HTML prolog from prolog-file.
Use this option to replace the default HTML prolog (the initial part of the HTML source code
leading up to and including the <body> tag) with the contents of prolog-file. Within the prolog
text, the following words will be replaced when a page is generated:
@pagetitle@
The title of the page.
@basedir@
A relative path leading to the base directory (e.g., for locating css-files).
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_html_prolog.
--html-epilog epilog-file
Read customized HTML epilog from epilog-file.
Use this option to replace the default HTML epilog (the final part of the HTML source including
</body>) with the contents of epilog-file.
Within the epilog text, the following words will be replaced when a page is generated:
@basedir@
A relative path leading to the base directory (e.g., for locating css-files).
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_html_epilog.
--html-extension extension
Use customized filename extension for generated HTML pages.
This option is useful in situations where different filename extensions are required to render the
resulting pages correctly (e.g., php). Note that a '.' will be inserted between the filename and
the extension specified by this option.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_html_extension.
--html-gzip
Compress all generated html files with gzip and add a .htaccess file specifying gzip-encoding in
the root output directory.
Use this option if you want to save space on your webserver. Requires a webserver with .htaccess
support and a browser with support for gzip compressed html.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_html_gzip.
--sort
--no-sort
Specify whether to include sorted views of file and directory overviews.
Use --sort to include sorted views or --no-sort to not include them. Sorted views are enabled by
default.
When sorted views are enabled, each overview page will contain links to views of that page sorted
by coverage rate.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option genhtml_sort.
--function-coverage
--no-function-coverage
Specify whether to display function coverage summaries in HTML output.
Use --function-coverage to enable function coverage summaries or --no-function-coverage to disable
it. Function coverage summaries are enabled by default.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_function_coverage.
When function coverage summaries are enabled, each overview page will contain the number of
functions found and hit per file or directory, together with the resulting coverage rate. In
addition, each source code view will contain a link to a page which lists all functions found in
that file plus the respective call count for those functions. The function coverage page groups
the data for every alias of each function, sorted by name or execution count. The representative
name of the group of functions is the shorted (i.e., containing the fewest characters).
If using differential coverage and a sufficiently recent compiler version which report both begin
and end line of functions ( e.g., gcc/9 and newer), functions are considered 'new' if any of their
source lines have changed. With older compiler versions, functions are considered 'new' if the
function signature has changed or if the entire function is new.
--branch-coverage
--no-branch-coverage
Specify whether to display branch coverage data in HTML output.
Use --branch-coverage to enable branch coverage display or --no-branch-coverage to disable it.
Branch coverage data display is disabled by default.
When branch coverage display is enabled, each overview page will contain the number of branches
found and hit per file or directory, together with the resulting coverage rate. In addition, each
source code view will contain an extra column which lists all branches of a line with indications
of whether the branch was taken or not. Branches are shown in the following format:
' + ': Branch was taken at least once
' - ': Branch was not taken
' # ': The basic block containing the branch was never executed
Note that it might not always be possible to relate branches to the corresponding source code
statements: during compilation, GCC might shuffle branches around or eliminate some of them to
generate better code.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
branch_coverage.
--mcdc-coverage
Specify whether to display Modifie Condition / Decision Coverage (MC/DC) data in HTML output.
MC/DC data display is disabled by default.
MC/DC coverage is supported for GCC versions 14.2 and higher, or LLVM 18.1 and higher.
See llvm2lcov --help for details on MC/DC data capture in LLVM.
When MC/DC display is enabled, each overview page will contain the number of MC/DC expressions
found and hit per file or directory - two senses per expression - together with the resulting
coverage rate. In addition, each source code view will contain an extra column which lists all
expressions and condition senses of a line with indications of whether the condition was
sensitized or not. Conditions are shown in the following format:
T: True sense of subexpression was sensitized: if this subexpression's value had been false,
then the condition result would have been different.
t: True sense of subexpression was not sensitized: the condition result would not change if
the subexpression value was different.
F: False sense of subexpression was sensitized: if this subexpression's value had been true,
then the condition result would have been different.
f: False sense of subexpression was not sensitized: the condition result would not change if
the subexpression value was different.
Note that branch and MC/DC coverage are identical if the condition is a simple expression - e.g.,
if (enable) ...
Note that, where appropriate, filters are applied to both 'branch' and 'MC/DC' coverpoints: if a
particular filter would remove some branch, then it will also remove corresponding MC/DC
coverpoints. See the --filter section, above.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option mcdc_coverage.
See man lcovrc(5) .
Note that MC/DC coverpoints are defined differently by GCC and LLVM.
GCC:
evaluates the sensitivity of the condition to the 'true' and 'false' sense of each constituent
(leaf) expression independently.
That is: it evaluates the question: does the result of the condition change if this
constituent expression changed from true to false (termed the 'true' sense, above) or from
false to true (termed the 'false' sens, above).
For example, the expression A || B is sensitive to A==true when B==false, but is is not
sensitive to A==true when B==true.
LLVM:
records the subexpression as covered if and only if there is a pair of evaluations of the
condition such that the condition was sensitized for both 'true' and 'false' values of the
subexpression. This is defined as an independence pair in the LLVM documentation.
That is: the testcase must sensitize both values in order to be marked covered by LLVM, whereas
GCC will independently mark each. Consequently: in LLVM-generated lcov reports, either both
'true' and 'false' sensitizations will be covered, or neither will be.
See the examples in tesctcase .../tests/lcov/mcdc.
--demangle-cpp [param]
Specify whether to demangle C++ function names.
Use this option if you want to convert C++ internal function names to human readable format for
display on the HTML function overview page.
If called with no parameters, genhtml will use c++filt for demangling. This requires that the
c++filt tool is installed (see c++filt(1)).
If param is specified, it is treated as th tool to call to demangle source code. The
--demangle-cpp option can be used multiple times to specify the demangling tool and a set of
command line options that are passed to the tool - similar to how the gcc -Xlinker parameter
works. In that case, you callback will be executed as: | demangle_param0 demangle_param1 ...
Note that the demangle tool is called as a pipe and is expected to read from stdin and write to
stdout.
--msg-log [ log_file_name ]
Specify location to store error and warning messages (in addition to writing to STDERR). If
log_file_name is not specified, then default location is used.
--ignore-errors errors
Specify a list of errors after which to continue processing.
Use this option to specify a list of error classes after which genhtml should continue processing
with a warning message instead of aborting. To suppress the warning message, specify the error
class twice.
errors can be a comma-separated list of the following keywords:
annotate:
--annotate-script returned non-zero exit status - likely a file path or related error. HTML
source code display will not be correct and ownership/date information may be missing.
branch:
Branch ID (2nd field in the .info file 'BRDA' entry) does not follow expected integer sequence.
callback:
Annotate, version, or criteria script error.
category:
Line number categorizations are incorrect in the .info file, so branch coverage line number
turns out to not be an executable source line.
child:
child process returned non-zero exit code during --parallel execution. This typically
indicates that the child encountered an error: see the log file immediately above this
message. In contrast: the parallel error indicates an unexpected/unhandled exception in the
child process - not a 'typical' lcov error.
count:
An excessive number of messages of some class has been reported - subsequent messages of that
type will be suppressed. The limit can be controlled by the 'max_message_count' variable. See
man lcovrc(5).
corrupt:
Corrupt/unreadable coverage data file found.
deprecated:
You are using a deprecated option. This option will be removed in an upcoming release - so you
should change your scripts now.
empty:
The patch file specified by the --diff-file argument does not contain any differences. This
may be OK if there were no source code changes between 'baseline' and 'current' (e.g., the only
change was to modify a Makefile) - or may indicate an unsupported file format.
excessive:
your coverage data contains a suspiciously large 'hit' count which is unlikely to be correct -
possibly indicating a bug in your toolchain. See the excessive_count_threshold section in man
lcorc(5) for details.
fork:
Unable to create child process during --parallel execution.
If the message is ignored ( --ignore-errors fork ), then genhtml will wait a brief period and
then retry the failed execution.
If you see continued errors, either turn off or reduce parallelism, set a memory limit, or find
a larger server to run the task.
format:
Unexpected syntax or value found in .info file - for example, negative number or zero line
number encountered.
inconsistent:
This error indicates that your coverage data is internally inconsistent: it makes two or more
mutually exclusive claims. For example:
- Files have been moved or repository history presented by --diff-file data is not consistent
with coverage data; for example, an 'inserted' line has baseline coverage data. These
issues are likely to be caused by inconsistent handling in the 'diff' data compared to the
'baseline' and 'current' coverage data (e.g., using different source versions to collect the
data but incorrectly annotating those differences), or by inconsistent treatment in the
'annotate' script. Consider using a --version-script to guard against version mismatches.
- Two or more gcov data files or lcov ".info" files report different end lines for the same
function. This is likely due either to a gcc/gcov bug or to a source version mismatch.
In this context, if the inconsistent error is ignored, then the tool will record the largest
number as the function end line.
- Two or more gcov data files or lcov ".info" files report different start lines for the same
function. This is likely due either to a gcc/gcov bug or to a source version mismatch.
In this context, if the inconsistent error is ignored, then the tool will retain only the
first function definition that it saw.
- Mismatched function declaration/alias records encountered:
(backward compatible LCOV format)
function execution count record ( FNDA ) without matching function declaration record (
FN ).
(enhanced LCOV format)
function alias record ( FNA ) without matching function declaration record ( FLN ).
- branch expression (3rd field in the .info file 'BRDA' entry) of merge data does not match
If the error is ignored, the offending record is skipped.
internal:
internal tool issue detected. Please report this bug along with a testcase.
mismatch:
Incorrect or inconsistent information found in coverage data and/or source code - for example,
the source code contains overlapping exclusion directives.
missing:
remove all coverpoints associated with source files which are not found or are not readable.
This is equivalent to adding a --exclude <name> pattern for each file which is not found.
If a --resolve-script callback is specified, then the file is considered missing if it is not
locally visible and the callback returns "" (empty string) or 'undef' - otherwise not missing.
negative:
negative 'hit' count found.
Note that negative counts may be caused by a known GCC bug - see
https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=68080
and try compiling with "-fprofile-update=atomic". You will need to recompile, re-run your
tests, and re-capture coverage data.
package:
A required perl package is not installed on your system. In some cases, it is possible to
ignore this message and continue - however, certain features will be disabled in that case.
parallel:
various types of errors related to parallelism - i.e., a child process died due to an error.
The corresponding error message appears in the log file immediately before the parallel error.
If you see an error related to parallel execution that seems invalid, it may be a good idea to
remove the --parallel flag and try again. If removing the flag leads to a different result,
please report the issue (along with a testcase) so that the tool can be fixed.
path:
File name found in --diff-file file but does not appear in either baseline or current trace
data. These may be mapping issues - different pathname in the tracefile vs. the diff file.
range:
Coverage data refers to a line number which is larger than the number of lines in the source
file. This can be caused by a version mismatch or by an issue in the gcov data.
source:
The source code file for a data set could not be found.
unmapped:
Coverage data for a particular line cannot be found, possibly because the source code was not
found, or because the line number mapping in the .info file is wrong.
This can happen if the source file used in HTML generation is not the same as the file used to
generate the coverage data - for example, lines have been added or removed.
unsupported:
The requested feature is not supported for this tool configuration. For example, function
begin/end line range exclusions use some GCOV features that are not available in older GCC
releases.
unused:
The include/exclude/erase/substitute/omit pattern did not match any file pathnames.
usage:
unsupported usage detected - e.g. an unsupported option combination.
utility:
a tool called during processing returned an error code (e.g., 'find' encountered an unreadable
directory).
version:
--version-script comparison returned non-zero mismatch indication. It likely that the version
of the file which was used in coverage data extraction is different than the source version
which was found. File annotations may be incorrect.
Note that certain error messages are caused by issues that you probably cannot fix by yourself -
for example, bugs in your tool chain which result in inconsistent coverage DB data (see above).
In those cases, after reviewing the messages you may want to exclude the offending code or the
entire offending file, or you may simply ignore the messages - either by converting to warning or
suppressing entirely. Another alternative is to tell genhtml about the number of messages you
expect - so that it can warn you if something changes such that the count differs, such that you
know to review the messages again. See the --expect-message-count flag, below.
Also see 'man lcovrc(5)
--expect-message-count message_type:expr[,message_type:expr]
Give genhtml a constraint on the number of messages of one or more types which are expected to be
produced during execution. Note that the total includes _all_ messages of the given type -
including those which have been suppressed. If the constraint is not true, an error of type count
(see above) is generated. message_type is one of the message mnemonics described above, and expr
may be either
- an integer - interpreted to mean that there should be exactly that number of messages of the
corresponding type, or
- a Perl expression containing the substring %C ; %C is replaced with the total number of
messages of the corresponding type and then evaluated. The constraint is met if the result is
non-zero and is not met otherwise.
For example:
--expect-message-count inconsistent:5
says that we expect exactly 5 messages of type 'inconsistent'.
--expect-message-count inconsistent:%C==5
also says that we expect exactly 5 messages of this type, but specified using expression
syntax.
--expect-message-count 'inconsistent : %C > 6 && %C <= 10'
says that we expect the number of messages to be in the range (6:10]. (Note that quoting
may be necessary, to protect whitespace from interpretation by your shell, if you want to
improve expression readability by adding spaces to your expression.)
Multiple constraints can be specified using a comma-separated list or by using the option multiple
times.
This flag is equivalent to the expect_message_count configuration option. See man lcovrc(5) for
more details on the expression syntax and how expressions are interpreted. The number of messages
of the particular type is substituted into the expression before it is evaluated.
--keep-going
Do not stop if error occurs: attempt to generate a result, however flawed.
This command line option corresponds to the stop_on_error lcovrc option. See man lcovrc(5) for
more details.
--config-file config-file
Specify a configuration file to use. See man lcovrc(5) for details of the file format and
options.
When this option is specified, neither the system-wide configuration 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 genhtml with different
configuration file options in parallel.
Note that this option must be specified in full - abbreviations are not supported.
--profile [ profile-data-file ]
Tell the tool to keep track of performance and other configuration data. If the optional
profile-data-file is not specified, then the profile data is written to a file named genhtml.json
in the output directory.
--rc keyword=value
Override a configuration directive.
Use this option to specify a keyword=value statement which overrides the corresponding
configuration statement in the lcovrc configuration file. You can specify this option more than
once to override multiple configuration statements. See man lcovrc(5) for a list of available
keywords and their meaning.
--precision num
Show coverage rates with num number of digits after the decimal point.
Default value is 1.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_precision.
--merge-aliases
Functions whose file/line is the same are considered to be aliases; genthml uses the shortest name
in the list of aliases (fewest characters) as the leader.
This option counts each alias group as a single object - so the 'function' count will be the
number of distinct function groups rather than the total number of aliases of all functions - and
displays them as groups in the 'function detail table.
Note that this option has an effect only if --filter function has been applied to the coverage DB.
This parameter an be configured via the configuration file merge_function_aliases option. See
man(5) lcovrc.
--suppress-aliases
Suppress list of aliases in function detail table.
Functions whose file/line is the same are considered to be aliases; genthml uses the
shortest name in the list of aliases (fewest characters) as the leader.
The number of aliases can be large, for example due to instantiated templates - which can
make function coverage results difficult to read. This option removes the list of aliases,
making it easier to focus on the overall function coverage number, which is likely more
interesting.
Note that this option has an effect only if --filter function has been applied to the
coverage DB.
This parameter an be configured via the configuration file merge_function_aliases option.
See man(5) lcovrc.
--forget-test-names
If non-zero, ignore testcase names in .info file - i.e., treat all coverage data as
if it came from the same testcase. This may improve performance and reduce memory
consumption if user does not need per-testcase coverage summary in coverage reports.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
forget_testcase_names.
--missed
Show counts of missed lines, functions, branches, and MC/DC expressions.
Use this option to change overview pages to show the count of lines, functions,
branches, or MC/DC expressions that were not hit. These counts are represented by
negative numbers.
When specified together with --sort, file and directory views will be sorted by
missed counts.
This option can also be configured permanently using the configuration file option
genhtml_missed.
--dark-mode
Use a light-display-on-dark-background color scheme rather than the default
dark-display-on-light-background.
The idea is to reduce eye strain due to viewing dark text on a bright screen -
particularly at night.
--tempdir dirname
Write temporary and intermediate data to indicated directory. Default is "/tmp".
--preserve
Preserve intermediate data files generated by various steps in the tool - e.g., for
debugging. By default, these files are deleted.
--save
Copy unified-diff-file, baseline_trace_files, and tracefile(s) to output-directory.
Keeping copies of the input data files may help to debug any issues or to regenerate
report files later.
--serialize file_name
Save coverage database to file_name.
The file is in Perl "Storable" format.
Note that this option may significantly increase genhtml memory requirements, as a
great deal of data must be retained.
FILES
/etc/lcovrc
The system-wide configuration file.
~/.lcovrc
The per-user configuration file.
Sample --diff-file data creation scripts:
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/p4udiff
Sample script for use with --diff-file that creates a unified diff file via Perforce.
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/gitdiff
Sample script for use with --diff-file that creates a unified diff file via git.
Sample --annotate-script callback Perl modules:
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/p4annotate.pm
Sample script written as Perl module for use with --annotate-script that provides
annotation data via Perforce.
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/gitblame.pm
Sample script written as Perl module for use with --annotate-script that provides
annotation data via git.
Sample --criteria-script callback Perl modules:
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/criteria.pm
Sample script written as Perl module for use with --criteria-script that implements a check
for "UNC + LBC + UIC == 0".
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/threshold.pm
Sample script written as Perl module to check for minimum acceptable line and/or branch
and/or and/or MC/DC function coverage. For example, the
genhtml --fail_under_lines 75 ...
feature can instead be realized by
genhtml --criteria-script /usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/threshold.pm,--line,75
...
Sample --version-script callback Perl modules and scripts:
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/getp4version
Sample script for use with --version-script that obtains version IDs via Perforce.
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/P4version.pm
A perl module with similar functionality to getp4version but higher performance.
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/get_signature
Sample script for use with --version-script that uses md5hash as version IDs.
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/gitversion.pm
A perl module with for use with --version-script which retrieves version IDs from git.
/usr/share/lcov//support-scripts/batchGitVersion.pm
A perl module with similar functionality to gitversion.pm but higher performance.
AUTHORS
Peter Oberparleiter <Peter.Oberparleiter@de.ibm.com>
Henry Cox <henry.cox@mediatek.com>
Differential coverage and date/owner binning, filtering, error management, parallel execution
sections,
SEE ALSO
lcov(1), lcovrc(5), geninfo(1), genpng(1), gendesc(1), gcov(1)
https://github.com/linux-test-project/lcov
2025-04-03 LCOV 2.0 genhtml(1)