Ubuntu Manpage: cover - report coverage statistics

Provided by: libdevel-cover-perl_1.40-1build3_amd64

NAME

       cover - report coverage statistics

VERSION

       version 1.40

SYNOPSIS

        cover -test

        cover -report html_basic

DESCRIPTION

       Report coverage statistics in a variety of formats.

       The summary option produces a short textual summary.  Other reports are available by using the report
       option.

       The following reports are currently available:

        html        - detailed HTML reports  (default)
        html_basic  - detailed HTML reports with syntax highlighting
        text        - detailed textual summary
        compilation - output in a format similar to Perl errors
        json        - output in a JSON format
        vim         - show coverage information in vim gutter

OPTIONS

       The following command line options are supported:

        -h -help              - show help
        -i -info              - show documentation
        -v -version           - show version

        -silent               - don't print informational messages (default off)
        -summary              - give summary report                (default on)
        -report report_format - report format                      (default html)
        -outputdir dir        - directory for output               (default given db)
        -launch               - launch report in viewer (if avail) (default off)

        -select filename      - only report on the file            (default all)
        -ignore filename      - don't report on the file           (default none)
        -select_re RE         - append to REs of files to select   (default none)
        -ignore_re RE         - append to REs of files to ignore   (default none)
        -relative_only        - for XS, ignore absolute paths      (default off)
        -gcov_chdir           - for XS, run gcov in subdirs        (default off)
        -write [db]           - write the merged database          (default off)
        -delete               - drop database(s)                   (default off)
        -dump_db              - dump database(s) (for debugging)   (default off)

        -coverage criterion   - report on criterion  (default all available)

        -test                 - drop database(s) and run make test (default off)
        -gcov                 - run gcov to cover XS code     (default on if using gcc)
        -make make_prog       - use the given 'make' program for 'make test'
        -prefer_lib           - prefer files in lib                (default off)
        -ignore_covered_err   - allow coverung uncoverable code    (default off)

        -add_uncoverable_point    string
        -delete_uncoverable_point string
        -clean_uncoverable_points
        -uncoverable_file         file

        other options specific to the report format

        coverage_database [coverage_database ...]

       The "-report", "-select", "-ignore", "-select_re", "-ignore_re", and "-coverage" options may be specified
       multiple times.

REPORT FORMATS

       The following "-report" options are available in the core module.  Other reports may be available if
       they've been installed from external packages.

       html|html_minimal (default)
           HTML  reporting.  Percentage  thresholds  are colour-coded and configurable via -report_c0 <integer>,
           -report_c1 <integer> and -report_c2 <integer>.:

               0%      75%      90%      100%
               |   ..   |   ..   |   ..   |
                  <c0      <c1      <c2   c3
                  red     yellow   orange green

       html_basic
           HTML reporting with  syntax  highlighting  if  PPI::HTML  or  Perl::Tidy  module  is  detected.  Like
           html|html_minimal reporting, percentage thresholds are colour-coded and configurable.

       text
           Plain text reporting.

       compilation
           A  textual  report in a format similar to that output by Perl itself such that the report may be used
           by your editor or other reporting tools to show where coverage is missing.

       json
           A report in JSON format.

       vim A report suitable for use with the vim editor to show coverage data in the sign column.

DETAILS

Any number of coverage databases may be specified on the command line. These databases will be merged
and the reports will be based on the merged information. If no databases are specified the default
database (cover_db) will be used.

The "-write" option will write out the merged database. If no name is given for the new database, the
first database read in will be overwritten. When this option is used no reports are generated by
default.

Specify the "-select", "-select_re", "-ignore", and "-ignore_re" options to report on specific files.
"-select" and "-ignore" are interpreted as shell globs; "-select_re" and "-ignore_re" are interpreted as
regular expressions.

Specify "-coverage" options to report on specific criteria. By default all available information on all
criteria in all files will be reported. Available coverage options are statement, branch, condition,
subroutine, pod, and default (which equates to all available options). However, if you know you only
want coverage information for certain criteria it is better to only collect data for those criteria in
the first place by specifying them at that point. This will make the data collection and reporting
processes faster and less memory intensive. See the documentation for Devel::Cover for more information.

If you want all *except* some criteria, then you can say something like "-coverage default,-pod".

If you specify multiple "-report" options, make sure that they do not conflict. For example, the
different HTML reports will overwrite each other's results.

The "-test" option will delete the databases and run your tests to generate new coverage data before
reporting on it. Devel::Cover knows how to work with standard Perl Makefiles as well as Module::Build
based distributions. For detailed instructions see the documentation for ExtUtils::MakeMaker at
<https://metacpan.org/module/ExtUtils::MakeMaker> or for Module::Build at
<https://metacpan.org/module/Module::Build> both of which come as standard in recent Perl distributions.

The "-gcov" option will try to run gcov on any XS code. This requires that you are using gcc of course.
If you are using the "-test" option will be turned on by default. If you have XS code in subdirectories,
you will probably need to add the "-gcov_chdir" option since gcov seems to work better with that.

The "-prefer_lib" option tells Devel::Cover to report on files in the lib directory even if they were
used from the blib directory.

The "-ignore_covered_err" option will not flag an error if uncoverable code is covered.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values are returned:

       0   All operations were completed successfully.

       >0  An error occurred.

       With the -test option the exit status of the underlying test run is returned.

BUGS

       Did I mention that this is alpha code?

       See the BUGS file.

LICENCE

       Copyright 2001-2023, Paul Johnson (paul@pjcj.net)

       This software is free.  It is licensed under the same terms as Perl itself.

       The latest version of this software should be available from my homepage: http://www.pjcj.net

perl v5.38.2                                       2024-04-01                                          COVER(1p)