In general, (almost) all geninfo options can also be specified in your personal, group, project, or site
configuration file - see man lcovrc(5) for details.
-bdirectory--base-directorydirectory
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 directory, i.e. environments, where the current working
directory when invoking the compiler is not the same directory in which the source code file is
located.
Note that this option will not work in environments where multiple base directories are used. In
that case use configuration file setting geninfo_auto_base=1 (see man lcovrc(5)).
--build-directorybuild_dir
Search for .gcno data files from build_dir rather finding them only adjacent to the corresponding
.o and/or .gcda file.
By default, geninfo expects to find the .gcno and .gcda files (compile- and run-time data,
respectively) in the same directory.
When this option is used:
geninfo path1 --build-directory path2 ...
then geninfo will look for .gcno file
path2/relative/path/to/da_base.gcno
when it finds .gcda file
path1/relative/path/to/da_base.gcda.
Use this option when you have used the GCOV_PREFIX environment variable to direct the gcc or llvm
runtime environment to write coverage data files to somewhere other than the directory where the
code was originally compiled. See gcc(1) and/or search for GCOV_PREFIX and GCOV_PREFIX_STRIP.
This option can be used several times to specify multiple alternate directories to look for .gcno
files. This may be useful if your application uses code which is compiled in many separate
locations - for example, common libraries that are shared between teams.
--source-directorydirname
Add 'dirname' to the list of places to look for source files.
For relative source file paths found in the gcov data - possibly after substitutions have been
applied, geninfo 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.
--branch-coverage
Collect retain branch coverage data.
This is equivalent to using the option "--rc branch_coverage=1"; the option was added to better
match the genhml interface.
--mcdc-coverage
Collect retain MC/DC data.
This is equivalent to using the option "--rc mcdc_coverage=1". MC/DC coverage capture is
supported for GCC versions 14.2 and higher, or LLVM versions 18.1 and higher.
See llvm2lcov--help for details on MC/DC data capture in LLVM.
See the MC/DC section of man genhtml(1) for more details
--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.
Note that this options is somewhat subsumed by the --version-script option - which does something
similar, but at the 'whole file' level.
--compatmode=value[,mode=value,...]
Set compatibility mode.
Use --compat to specify that geninfo should enable one or more compatibility modes when capturing
coverage data. You can provide a comma-separated list of mode=value pairs to specify the values
for multiple modes.
Valid values are:
on
Enable compatibility mode.
off
Disable compatibility mode.
auto
Apply auto-detection to determine if compatibility mode is required. Note that auto-
detection is not available for all compatibility modes.
If no value is specified, 'on' is assumed as default value.
Valid modes are:
libtool
Enable this mode if you are capturing coverage data for a project that was built using the
libtool mechanism. See also --compat-libtool.
The default value for this setting is 'on'.
hammer
Enable this mode if you are capturing coverage data for a project that was built using a
version of GCC 3.3 that contains a modification (hammer patch) of later GCC versions. You
can identify a modified GCC 3.3 by checking the build directory of your project for files
ending in the extension .bbg. Unmodified versions of GCC 3.3 name these files .bb.
The default value for this setting is 'auto'.
split_crc
Enable this mode if you are capturing coverage data for a project that was built using a
version of GCC 4.6 that contains a modification (split function checksums) of later GCC
versions. Typical error messages when running geninfo on coverage data produced by such GCC
versions are ´out of memory' and 'reached unexpected end of file'.
The default value for this setting is 'auto'
--compat-libtool--no-compat-libtool
Specify whether to enable libtool compatibility mode.
Use --compat-libtool to enable libtool compatibility mode or --no-compat-libtool to disable it.
The libtool compatibility mode is enabled by default.
When libtool compatibility mode is enabled, geninfo will assume that the source code relating to a
.gcda 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.
--config-fileconfig-file
Specify a configuration file to use. See the lcovrc man page 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 geninfo 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 with the same
basename as the --output-filename,withsuffix.json appended.
--derive-func-data
Calculate function coverage data from line coverage data.
Use this option to collect function coverage data, even if the version of the gcov tool installed
on the test system does not provide this data. lcov will instead derive function coverage data
from line coverage data and information about which lines belong to a function.
--external--no-external
Specify whether to capture coverage data for external source files.
External source files are files which are not located in one of the directories specified by
--directory or --base-directory. Use --external to include coverpoints in external source files
while capturing coverage data or --no-external to exclude them. If your --directory or
--base-directory path contains a soft link, then actual target directory is not considered to be
"internal" unless the --follow option is used.
The --no-external option is somewhat of a blunt instrument; the --exclude and --include options
provide finer grained control over which coverage data is and is not included if your project
structure is complex and/or --no-external does not do what you want.
Data for external source files is included by default.
-f--follow
Follow links when searching .gcda files, as well as to decide whether a particular (symbolically
linked) source directory is "internal" to the project or not - see the --no-external option,
above, for more information. The --followcommandlineoptionisequivalenttothegeninfo_follow_symlinks config file option. See man lcovrc(5)formoreinformation.--gcov-tooltool
Specify the location of the gcov tool.
If the --gcov-tool option is used multiple times, then the arguments are concatenated when the
callback is executed - similar to how the gcc -Xlinker parameter works. This provides a possibly
easier way to pass arguments to your tool, without requiring a wrapper script. In that case, your
callback will be executed as: tool-0'tool-1;...'filename'. Note that the second and subsequent
arguments are quoted when passed to the shell, in order to handle parameters which contain spaces.
The --gcov-tool argument may be a split_char separated string - see man(4)lcovrc.
A common use for this option is to enable LLVM:
geninfo--gcov-tool llvm-cov --gcov-tool gcov ...
geninfo--gcov-tool llvm-cov,gcov ...
Note: 'llvm-cov gcov da_file_name' will generate output in gcov-compatible format as required by
lcov.
If not specified, 'gcov' is used by default.
-h--help
Print a short help text, then exit.
--includepattern
Include source files matching pattern.
Use this switch if you want to include coverage data for only a particular set of source files
matching any of the given patterns. Multiple patterns can be specified by using multiple --include
command line switches. The patterns will be interpreted as shell wildcard patterns (note that they
may need to be escaped accordingly to prevent the shell from expanding them first).
See the lcov man page for details
--excludepattern
Exclude source files matching pattern.
Use this switch if you want to exclude coverage data from a particular set of source files
matching any of the given patterns. Multiple patterns can be specified by using multiple --exclude
command line switches. The patterns will be interpreted as shell wildcard patterns (note that they
may need to be escaped accordingly to prevent the shell from expanding them first). Note: The
pattern must be specified to match the absolute path of each source file.
Can be combined with the --include command line switch. If a given file matches both the include
pattern and the exclude pattern, the exclude pattern will take precedence.
See the lcov man page for details.
--erase-functionsregexp
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 gcc version which is new enough to support function
begin/end line reports or that you configure the tool to derive the required dta - see the
derive_function_end_line discussion in the lcovrc man page.
--substituteregexp_pattern
Apply Perl regexp regexp_pattern to source file names found during processing. This is useful
when the path name reported by gcov does not match your source layout and the file is not found.
See the lcov man page for more details.
--omit-linesregexp
Exclude coverage data from lines whose content matches regexp.
Use this switch if you want to exclude line, branch, and MC/DC coverage data for some particular
constructs in your code (e.g., some complicated macro). See the lcov man page for details.
--forget-test-names
If non-zero, ignore testcase names in tracefile - 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.
--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-errorserrors
Specify a list of errors after which to continue processing.
Use this option to specify a list of one or more classes of errors after which geninfo should
continue processing instead of aborting. Note that the tool will generate a warning (rather than
a fatal error) unless you ignore the error two (or more) times:
geninfo ... --ignore-errors unused,unused
errors can be a comma-separated list of the following keywords:
branch:
branch ID (2nd field in the .info file 'BRDA' entry) does not follow expected integer sequence.
callback:
Version script error.
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.
corrupt:
corrupt/unreadable file found.
count:
An excessive number of messages of some class have been reported - subsequent messages of that
type will be suppressed. The limit can be controlled by the 'max_message_count' variable. See
the lcovrc man page.
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 .info data file is empty (e.g., because all the code was 'removed' or excluded.
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 lcovrc(5) for details.
fork:
Unable to create child process during --parallel execution.
If the message is ignored ( --ignore-errorsfork ), 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.
gcov:
the gcov tool returned with a non-zero return code.
graph:
the graph file could not be found or is corrupted.
inconsistent:
your coverage data is internally inconsistent: it makes two or more mutually exclusive claims.
For example, some expression is marked as both an exception branch and not an exception branch.
(See man genhtml(1) for more details.
internal:
internal tool issue detected. Please report this bug along with a testcase.
mismatch:
Incorrect information found in coverage data and/or source code - for example, the source code
contains overlapping exclusion directives.
missing:
File does not exist or is not readable.
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.
parent:
the parent process exited while child was active during --parallel execution. This happens
when the parent has encountered a fatal error - e.g. an error in some other child which was
not ignored. This child cannot continue working without its parent - and so will exit.
path:
some file paths were not resolved - e.g., .gcno file corresponding to some .gcda was not found
see --build-directory option for additional information.
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.
`<
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/omit/substitute 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:
revision control IDs of the file which we are trying to merge are not the same - line numbering
and other information may be incorrect.
Also see the --ignore-errors section in man genhtml(1). The description there may be more
complete and/or more fully explained.
See man lcovrc(5)
for a discussion of the 'max_message_count' parameter which can be used to control the number of
warnings which are emitted before all subsequent messages are suppressed. This can be used to
reduce log file volume.
--expect-message-countmessage_type:expr[,message_type:expr]
Give geninfo a constraint on the number of messages of one or more types which are expected to be
produced during execution. If the constraint is not true, then generate an error of type count
(see above).
See man genhtml(1) for more details about the flag, as well as the expect_message_count section in
man lcovrc(5) for a description of the equivalent configuration file option.
--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[0|1] lcovrc option. See man lcovrc(5)formoredetails.--fail-under-linespercentage
Use this option to tell geninfo to exit with a status of 1 if the total line coverage is less than
percentage. See manlcov(1) for more details.
--preserve
Preserve intermediate data files (e.g., for debugging).
By default, intermediate files are deleted.
--filterfilters
Specify a list of coverpoint filters to apply to input data. See the genhtml man page for
details.
--demangle-cpp[param]
Demangle C++ method and function names in captured output. See the genhtml man page for details.
-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. Also see the --all flag, below.
Note: the --initial option is not supported for gcc versions less than 6, and does not generate
branch coverage information for gcc versions less than 8.
--all
Capture coverage data from both compile time (.gcno) data files which do not have corresponding
runtime (.gcda) data files, as well as from those that do have corresponding runtime data. There
will be no runtime data unless some executable which links the corresponding object file has run
to completion.
Note that the execution count of coverpoints found only in files which do not have any runtime
data will be zero.
This flag is ignored if the --initial flag is set.
Using the --all flag is equivalent to executing both geninfo--initial... and geninfo... and
merging the result.
Also see the geninfo_capture_all entry in man(5)lcovrc.--no-markers
Unless the --no-markers option is used, geninfo will apply both region and branch_region filters
to the captured coverae data. Use this option if you want to get coverage data without regard to
exclusion markers in the source code file.
If any --filter options are applied, then the default region filters are not used.
--no-markersshouldnotbespecifiedalongwith--filter.--no-recursion
Use this option if you want to get coverage data for the specified directory only without
processing subdirectories.
-ooutput-filename--output-filenameoutput-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
.gcda file.
--context-scriptscript
Use script to collect additional tool execution context information - to aid in infrastructure
debugging and/or tracking.
See the genhtml man page for more details on the context script.
--criteria-scriptscript
Use script to test for coverage acceptance criteria.
See the genhtml man page for more details on the criteria script. Note that geninfo does not keep
track of date and owner information (see the --annotate-script entry in the genhtml man page) - so
this information is not passed to the geninfo callback.
--resolve-scriptscript
Use script to find the file path for some source or GCNO file which appears in an input data file
if the file is not found after applying --substitute patterns and searching the --source-directory
or --build-directory list.
This option is equivalent to the resolve_script config file option.
In addition, the geninfo_follow_path_links config file option can be used to resolve source paths
to their actual target.
See man lcovrc(5) for details.
--version-scriptscript
Use script to get a source file's version ID from revision control when extracting data. The ID is
used for error checking when merging .info files.
See the genhtml man page for more details on the version script.
-v--verbose
Increment informational message verbosity. This is mainly used for script and/or flow
debugging - e.g., to figure out which data file are found, where. Also see the --quiet
flag.
Messages are sent to stdout unless there is no output file (i.e., if the coverage data is
written to stdout rather than to a file) and to stderr otherwise.
-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.
--commentcomment_string
Append comment_string to list of comments emitted into output result file. This option may
be specified multiple times. Comments are printed at the top of the file, in the order
they were specified.
Comments can be useful to document the conditions under which the trace file was generated:
host, date, environment, etc.--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,fork_fail_timeout,geninfo_chunk_size and geninfo_interval_update entries in man lcovrc(5) for a description
of some options which may aid in parameter tuning and performance optimization.
--memoryinteger
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 now 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.
--rckeyword=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.
-ttestname--test-nametestname
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.
--version
Print version number, then exit.
--tempdirdirname
Write temporary and intermediate data to indicated directory. Default is "/tmp".
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