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]
	       [--no-recursion] 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 conversion process.

       Note also that geninfo is called from within lcov, so that there is usually no need to call it directly.

       Exclusion markers

       To  exclude specific lines of code from a tracefile, you can add exclusion markers to the source code. Exclusion markers are keywords which
       can for example be added in the form of a comment.

       The following markers are recognized by geninfo:

       LCOV_EXCL_LINE
	      Lines containing this marker will be excluded.
       LCOV_EXCL_START
	      Marks the beginning of an excluded section. The current line is part of this section.
       LCOV_EXCL_STOP
	      Marks the end of an excluded section. The current line not part of this section.

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-environment when geninfo produces error messages like:

		     ERROR: could not read source file /home/user/project/subdir1/subdir2/subdir1/subdir2/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 direc-
	      tory,  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 multiple base directories are used. In that case repeat the  geninfo  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 tracefiles.

	      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 generated for each source code line and stored along with the coverage 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  directory
	      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  abort-
	      ing.

	      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 and function.  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 object code files were loaded during the test.

	      Note: currently, the --initial option does not generate branch coverage information.

       --no-recursion
	      Use this option if you want to get coverage data for the specified directory only without processing subdirectories.

       -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 easier handling), use this option to specify the respective filename.	By
	      default, one tracefile will be created for each processed .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 testname
       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>

       Next, there is a list of execution counts for each instrumented function:

	 FNDA:<execution count>,<function name>

       This list is followed by two lines containing the number of functions found and hit:

	 FNF:<number of functions found>
	 FNH:<number of function hit>

       Branch coverage information is stored which one line per branch:

	 BRDA:<line number>,<block number>,<branch number>,<taken>

       Block number and branch number are gcc internal IDs for the branch. Taken is either '-' if the basic block containing the branch was  never
       executed or a number indicating how often that branch was taken.

       Branch coverage summaries are stored in two lines:

	 BRF:<number of branches found>
	 BRH:<number of branches hit>

       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 instrumented 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 interpreting 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)

2010-08-06							     LCOV 1.9								geninfo(1)