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@c Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,

@c 2008, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

@c This is part of the GCC manual.

@c For copying conditions, see the file gcc.texi.

@ignore

@c man begin COPYRIGHT

Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,

2005, 2008, 2010  Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document

under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or

any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the

Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``Funding

Free Software'', the Front-Cover texts being (a) (see below), and with

the Back-Cover Texts being (b) (see below).  A copy of the license is

included in the gfdl(7) man page.

(a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is:

     A GNU Manual

(b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is:

     You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU

     software.  Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise

     funds for GNU development.

@c man end

@c Set file name and title for the man page.

@setfilename gcov

@settitle coverage testing tool

@end ignore

@node Gcov

@chapter @command{gcov}---a Test Coverage Program

@command{gcov} is a tool you can use in conjunction with GCC to

test code coverage in your programs.

@menu

* Gcov Intro::                  Introduction to gcov.

* Invoking Gcov::               How to use gcov.

* Gcov and Optimization::       Using gcov with GCC optimization.

* Gcov Data Files::             The files used by gcov.

* Cross-profiling::             Data file relocation.

@end menu

@node Gcov Intro

@section Introduction to @command{gcov}

@c man begin DESCRIPTION

@command{gcov} is a test coverage program.  Use it in concert with GCC

to analyze your programs to help create more efficient, faster running

code and to discover untested parts of your program.  You can use

@command{gcov} as a profiling tool to help discover where your

optimization efforts will best affect your code.  You can also use

@command{gcov} along with the other profiling tool, @command{gprof}, to

assess which parts of your code use the greatest amount of computing

time.

Profiling tools help you analyze your code's performance.  Using a

profiler such as @command{gcov} or @command{gprof}, you can find out some

basic performance statistics, such as:

@itemize @bullet

@item

how often each line of code executes

@item

what lines of code are actually executed

@item

how much computing time each section of code uses

@end itemize

Once you know these things about how your code works when compiled, you

can look at each module to see which modules should be optimized.

@command{gcov} helps you determine where to work on optimization.

Software developers also use coverage testing in concert with

testsuites, to make sure software is actually good enough for a release.

Testsuites can verify that a program works as expected; a coverage

program tests to see how much of the program is exercised by the

testsuite.  Developers can then determine what kinds of test cases need

to be added to the testsuites to create both better testing and a better

final product.

You should compile your code without optimization if you plan to use

@command{gcov} because the optimization, by combining some lines of code

into one function, may not give you as much information as you need to

look for `hot spots' where the code is using a great deal of computer

time.  Likewise, because @command{gcov} accumulates statistics by line (at

the lowest resolution), it works best with a programming style that

places only one statement on each line.  If you use complicated macros

that expand to loops or to other control structures, the statistics are

less helpful---they only report on the line where the macro call

appears.  If your complex macros behave like functions, you can replace

them with inline functions to solve this problem.

@command{gcov} creates a logfile called @file{@var{sourcefile}.gcov} which

indicates how many times each line of a source file @file{@var{sourcefile}.c}

has executed.  You can use these logfiles along with @command{gprof} to aid

in fine-tuning the performance of your programs.  @command{gprof} gives

timing information you can use along with the information you get from

@command{gcov}.

@command{gcov} works only on code compiled with GCC@.  It is not

compatible with any other profiling or test coverage mechanism.

@c man end

@node Invoking Gcov

@section Invoking @command{gcov}

@smallexample

gcov @r{[}@var{options}@r{]} @var{files}

@end smallexample

@command{gcov} accepts the following options:

@ignore

@c man begin SYNOPSIS

gcov [@option{-v}|@option{--version}] [@option{-h}|@option{--help}]

     [@option{-a}|@option{--all-blocks}]

     [@option{-b}|@option{--branch-probabilities}]

     [@option{-c}|@option{--branch-counts}]

     [@option{-u}|@option{--unconditional-branches}]

     [@option{-n}|@option{--no-output}]

     [@option{-l}|@option{--long-file-names}]

     [@option{-p}|@option{--preserve-paths}]

     [@option{-r}|@option{--relative-only}]

     [@option{-f}|@option{--function-summaries}]

     [@option{-o}|@option{--object-directory} @var{directory|file}]

     [@option{-s}|@option{--source-prefix} @var{directory}]

     [@option{-d}|@option{--display-progress}]

     @var{files}

@c man end

@c man begin SEEALSO

gpl(7), gfdl(7), fsf-funding(7), gcc(1) and the Info entry for @file{gcc}.

@c man end

@end ignore

@c man begin OPTIONS

@table @gcctabopt

@item -h

@itemx --help

Display help about using @command{gcov} (on the standard output), and

exit without doing any further processing.

@item -v

@itemx --version

Display the @command{gcov} version number (on the standard output),

and exit without doing any further processing.

@item -a

@itemx --all-blocks

Write individual execution counts for every basic block.  Normally gcov

outputs execution counts only for the main blocks of a line.  With this

option you can determine if blocks within a single line are not being

executed.

@item -b

@itemx --branch-probabilities

Write branch frequencies to the output file, and write branch summary

info to the standard output.  This option allows you to see how often

each branch in your program was taken.  Unconditional branches will not

be shown, unless the @option{-u} option is given.

@item -c

@itemx --branch-counts

Write branch frequencies as the number of branches taken, rather than

the percentage of branches taken.

@item -n

@itemx --no-output

Do not create the @command{gcov} output file.

@item -l

@itemx --long-file-names

Create long file names for included source files.  For example, if the

header file @file{x.h} contains code, and was included in the file

@file{a.c}, then running @command{gcov} on the file @file{a.c} will

produce an output file called @file{a.c##x.h.gcov} instead of

@file{x.h.gcov}.  This can be useful if @file{x.h} is included in

multiple source files and you want to see the individual

contributions.  If you use the @samp{-p} option, both the including

and included file names will be complete path names.

@item -p

@itemx --preserve-paths

Preserve complete path information in the names of generated

@file{.gcov} files.  Without this option, just the filename component is

used.  With this option, all directories are used, with @samp{/} characters

translated to @samp{#} characters, @file{.} directory components

removed and unremoveable @file{..}

components renamed to @samp{^}.  This is useful if sourcefiles are in several

different directories.

@item -r

@itemx --relative-only

Only output information about source files with a relative pathname

(after source prefix elision).  Absolute paths are usually system

header files and coverage of any inline functions therein is normally

uninteresting.

@item -f

@itemx --function-summaries

Output summaries for each function in addition to the file level summary.

@item -o @var{directory|file}

@itemx --object-directory @var{directory}

@itemx --object-file @var{file}

Specify either the directory containing the gcov data files, or the

object path name.  The @file{.gcno}, and

@file{.gcda} data files are searched for using this option.  If a directory

is specified, the data files are in that directory and named after the

input file name, without its extension.  If a file is specified here,

the data files are named after that file, without its extension.

@item -s @var{directory}

@itemx --source-prefix @var{directory}

A prefix for source file names to remove when generating the output

coverage files.  This option is useful when building in a separate

directory, and the pathname to the source directory is not wanted when

determining the output file names.  Note that this prefix detection is

applied before determining whether the source file is absolute.

@item -u

@itemx --unconditional-branches

When branch probabilities are given, include those of unconditional branches.

Unconditional branches are normally not interesting.

@item -d

@itemx --display-progress

Display the progress on the standard output.

@end table

@command{gcov} should be run with the current directory the same as that

when you invoked the compiler.  Otherwise it will not be able to locate

the source files.  @command{gcov} produces files called

@file{@var{mangledname}.gcov} in the current directory.  These contain

the coverage information of the source file they correspond to.

One @file{.gcov} file is produced for each source (or header) file

containing code,

which was compiled to produce the data files.  The @var{mangledname} part

of the output file name is usually simply the source file name, but can

be something more complicated if the @samp{-l} or @samp{-p} options are

given.  Refer to those options for details.

If you invoke @command{gcov} with multiple input files, the

contributions from each input file are summed.  Typically you would

invoke it with the same list of files as the final link of your executable.

The @file{.gcov} files contain the @samp{:} separated fields along with

program source code.  The format is

@smallexample

@var{execution_count}:@var{line_number}:@var{source line text}

@end smallexample

Additional block information may succeed each line, when requested by

command line option.  The @var{execution_count} is @samp{-} for lines

containing no code.  Unexecuted lines are marked @samp{#####} or

@samp{====}, depending on whether they are reachable by

non-exceptional paths or only exceptional paths such as C++ exception

handlers, respectively.

Some lines of information at the start have @var{line_number} of zero.

These preamble lines are of the form

@smallexample

-:0:@var{tag}:@var{value}

@end smallexample

The ordering and number of these preamble lines will be augmented as

@command{gcov} development progresses --- do not rely on them remaining

unchanged.  Use @var{tag} to locate a particular preamble line.

The additional block information is of the form

@smallexample

@var{tag} @var{information}

@end smallexample

The @var{information} is human readable, but designed to be simple

enough for machine parsing too.

When printing percentages, 0% and 100% are only printed when the values

are @emph{exactly} 0% and 100% respectively.  Other values which would

conventionally be rounded to 0% or 100% are instead printed as the

nearest non-boundary value.

When using @command{gcov}, you must first compile your program with two

special GCC options: @samp{-fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage}.

This tells the compiler to generate additional information needed by

gcov (basically a flow graph of the program) and also includes

additional code in the object files for generating the extra profiling

information needed by gcov.  These additional files are placed in the

directory where the object file is located.

Running the program will cause profile output to be generated.  For each

source file compiled with @option{-fprofile-arcs}, an accompanying

@file{.gcda} file will be placed in the object file directory.

Running @command{gcov} with your program's source file names as arguments

will now produce a listing of the code along with frequency of execution

for each line.  For example, if your program is called @file{tmp.c}, this

is what you see when you use the basic @command{gcov} facility:

@smallexample

$ gcc -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage tmp.c

$ a.out

$ gcov tmp.c

90.00% of 10 source lines executed in file tmp.c

Creating tmp.c.gcov.

@end smallexample

The file @file{tmp.c.gcov} contains output from @command{gcov}.

Here is a sample:

@smallexample

        -:    0:Source:tmp.c

        -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno

        -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda

        -:    0:Runs:1

        -:    0:Programs:1

        -:    1:#include <stdio.h>

        -:    2:

        -:    3:int main (void)

        1:    4:@{

        1:    5:  int i, total;

        -:    6:

        1:    7:  total = 0;

        -:    8:

       11:    9:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

       10:   10:    total += i;

        -:   11:

        1:   12:  if (total != 45)

    #####:   13:    printf ("Failure\n");

        -:   14:  else

        1:   15:    printf ("Success\n");

        1:   16:  return 0;

        -:   17:@}

@end smallexample

When you use the @option{-a} option, you will get individual block

counts, and the output looks like this:

@smallexample

        -:    0:Source:tmp.c

        -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno

        -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda

        -:    0:Runs:1

        -:    0:Programs:1

        -:    1:#include <stdio.h>

        -:    2:

        -:    3:int main (void)

        1:    4:@{

        1:    4-block  0

        1:    5:  int i, total;

        -:    6:

        1:    7:  total = 0;

        -:    8:

       11:    9:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

       11:    9-block  0

       10:   10:    total += i;

       10:   10-block  0

        -:   11:

        1:   12:  if (total != 45)

        1:   12-block  0

    #####:   13:    printf ("Failure\n");

    $$$$$:   13-block  0

        -:   14:  else

        1:   15:    printf ("Success\n");

        1:   15-block  0

        1:   16:  return 0;

        1:   16-block  0

        -:   17:@}

@end smallexample

In this mode, each basic block is only shown on one line -- the last

line of the block.  A multi-line block will only contribute to the

execution count of that last line, and other lines will not be shown

to contain code, unless previous blocks end on those lines.

The total execution count of a line is shown and subsequent lines show

the execution counts for individual blocks that end on that line.  After each

block, the branch and call counts of the block will be shown, if the

@option{-b} option is given.

Because of the way GCC instruments calls, a call count can be shown

after a line with no individual blocks.

As you can see, line 13 contains a basic block that was not executed.

@need 450

When you use the @option{-b} option, your output looks like this:

@smallexample

$ gcov -b tmp.c

90.00% of 10 source lines executed in file tmp.c

80.00% of 5 branches executed in file tmp.c

80.00% of 5 branches taken at least once in file tmp.c

50.00% of 2 calls executed in file tmp.c

Creating tmp.c.gcov.

@end smallexample

Here is a sample of a resulting @file{tmp.c.gcov} file:

@smallexample

        -:    0:Source:tmp.c

        -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno

        -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda

        -:    0:Runs:1

        -:    0:Programs:1

        -:    1:#include <stdio.h>

        -:    2:

        -:    3:int main (void)

function main called 1 returned 1 blocks executed 75%

        1:    4:@{

        1:    5:  int i, total;

        -:    6:

        1:    7:  total = 0;

        -:    8:

       11:    9:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

branch  0 taken 91% (fallthrough)

branch  1 taken 9%

       10:   10:    total += i;

        -:   11:

        1:   12:  if (total != 45)

branch  0 taken 0% (fallthrough)

branch  1 taken 100%

    #####:   13:    printf ("Failure\n");

call    0 never executed

        -:   14:  else

        1:   15:    printf ("Success\n");

call    0 called 1 returned 100%

        1:   16:  return 0;

        -:   17:@}

@end smallexample

For each function, a line is printed showing how many times the function

is called, how many times it returns and what percentage of the

function's blocks were executed.

For each basic block, a line is printed after the last line of the basic

block describing the branch or call that ends the basic block.  There can

be multiple branches and calls listed for a single source line if there

are multiple basic blocks that end on that line.  In this case, the

branches and calls are each given a number.  There is no simple way to map

these branches and calls back to source constructs.  In general, though,

the lowest numbered branch or call will correspond to the leftmost construct

on the source line.

For a branch, if it was executed at least once, then a percentage

indicating the number of times the branch was taken divided by the

number of times the branch was executed will be printed.  Otherwise, the

message ``never executed'' is printed.

For a call, if it was executed at least once, then a percentage

indicating the number of times the call returned divided by the number

of times the call was executed will be printed.  This will usually be

100%, but may be less for functions that call @code{exit} or @code{longjmp},

and thus may not return every time they are called.

The execution counts are cumulative.  If the example program were

executed again without removing the @file{.gcda} file, the count for the

number of times each line in the source was executed would be added to

the results of the previous run(s).  This is potentially useful in

several ways.  For example, it could be used to accumulate data over a

number of program runs as part of a test verification suite, or to

provide more accurate long-term information over a large number of

program runs.

The data in the @file{.gcda} files is saved immediately before the program

exits.  For each source file compiled with @option{-fprofile-arcs}, the

profiling code first attempts to read in an existing @file{.gcda} file; if

the file doesn't match the executable (differing number of basic block

counts) it will ignore the contents of the file.  It then adds in the

new execution counts and finally writes the data to the file.

@node Gcov and Optimization

@section Using @command{gcov} with GCC Optimization

If you plan to use @command{gcov} to help optimize your code, you must

first compile your program with two special GCC options:

@samp{-fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage}.  Aside from that, you can use any

other GCC options; but if you want to prove that every single line

in your program was executed, you should not compile with optimization

at the same time.  On some machines the optimizer can eliminate some

simple code lines by combining them with other lines.  For example, code

like this:

@smallexample

if (a != b)

  c = 1;

else

  c = 0;

@end smallexample

@noindent

can be compiled into one instruction on some machines.  In this case,

there is no way for @command{gcov} to calculate separate execution counts

for each line because there isn't separate code for each line.  Hence

the @command{gcov} output looks like this if you compiled the program with

optimization:

@smallexample

      100:   12:if (a != b)

      100:   13:  c = 1;

      100:   14:else

      100:   15:  c = 0;

@end smallexample

The output shows that this block of code, combined by optimization,

executed 100 times.  In one sense this result is correct, because there

was only one instruction representing all four of these lines.  However,

the output does not indicate how many times the result was 0 and how

many times the result was 1.

Inlineable functions can create unexpected line counts.  Line counts are

shown for the source code of the inlineable function, but what is shown

depends on where the function is inlined, or if it is not inlined at all.

If the function is not inlined, the compiler must emit an out of line

copy of the function, in any object file that needs it.  If

@file{fileA.o} and @file{fileB.o} both contain out of line bodies of a

particular inlineable function, they will also both contain coverage

counts for that function.  When @file{fileA.o} and @file{fileB.o} are

linked together, the linker will, on many systems, select one of those

out of line bodies for all calls to that function, and remove or ignore

the other.  Unfortunately, it will not remove the coverage counters for

the unused function body.  Hence when instrumented, all but one use of

that function will show zero counts.

If the function is inlined in several places, the block structure in

each location might not be the same.  For instance, a condition might

now be calculable at compile time in some instances.  Because the

coverage of all the uses of the inline function will be shown for the

same source lines, the line counts themselves might seem inconsistent.

@c man end

@node Gcov Data Files

@section Brief description of @command{gcov} data files

@command{gcov} uses two files for profiling.  The names of these files

are derived from the original @emph{object} file by substituting the

file suffix with either @file{.gcno}, or @file{.gcda}.  All of these files

are placed in the same directory as the object file, and contain data

stored in a platform-independent format.

The @file{.gcno} file is generated when the source file is compiled with

the GCC @option{-ftest-coverage} option.  It contains information to

reconstruct the basic block graphs and assign source line numbers to

blocks.

The @file{.gcda} file is generated when a program containing object files

built with the GCC @option{-fprofile-arcs} option is executed.  A

separate @file{.gcda} file is created for each object file compiled with

this option.  It contains arc transition counts, and some summary

information.

The full details of the file format is specified in @file{gcov-io.h},

and functions provided in that header file should be used to access the

coverage files.

@node Cross-profiling

@section Data file relocation to support cross-profiling

Running the program will cause profile output to be generated.  For each

source file compiled with @option{-fprofile-arcs}, an accompanying @file{.gcda}

file will be placed in the object file directory. That implicitly requires

running the program on the same system as it was built or having the same

absolute directory structure on the target system. The program will try

to create the needed directory structure, if it is not already present.

To support cross-profiling, a program compiled with @option{-fprofile-arcs}

can relocate the data files based on two environment variables:

@itemize @bullet

@item

GCOV_PREFIX contains the prefix to add to the absolute paths

in the object file. Prefix can be absolute, or relative.  The

default is no prefix.

@item

GCOV_PREFIX_STRIP indicates the how many initial directory names to strip off

the hardwired absolute paths. Default value is 0.

@emph{Note:} If GCOV_PREFIX_STRIP is set without GCOV_PREFIX is undefined,

 then a relative path is made out of the hardwired absolute paths.

@end itemize

For example, if the object file @file{/user/build/foo.o} was built with

@option{-fprofile-arcs}, the final executable will try to create the data file

@file{/user/build/foo.gcda} when running on the target system.  This will

fail if the corresponding directory does not exist and it is unable to create

it.  This can be overcome by, for example, setting the environment as

@samp{GCOV_PREFIX=/target/run} and @samp{GCOV_PREFIX_STRIP=1}.  Such a

setting will name the data file @file{/target/run/build/foo.gcda}.

You must move the data files to the expected directory tree in order to

use them for profile directed optimizations (@option{--use-profile}), or to

use the @command{gcov} tool.