Code coverage warrnings spam output - c++

In CMake tests configuration I added flags to generate codecoverage
IF( "${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID}" STREQUAL "Clang" OR
"${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID}" STREQUAL "GNU")
SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -g -O0 -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage")
SET(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "-g -O0 -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage ")
endif()
Each time I run tests - my output is spammed with those messages:
profiling: /xxxx/xxxxxj/projects/build-xxxxx-CLang-Debug/tests/CMakeFiles/xxxxxxxxxxxxxt_ut.dir/tests/gui/ship_design/ut_ship_stats_header.cpp.gcda: cannot merge previous GCDA file: mismatched number of counters (14)
profiling:
/xxxx/xxxxxx/projects/build-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-CLang-Debug/tests/CMakeFiles/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_ut.dir/tests/gui/ship_design/ut_ship_stats_header.cpp.gcda:
cannot merge previous GCDA file: corrupt arc tag (0x2b8e100f)
profiling:
/xxxx/xxxxxx/projects/build-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-CLang-Debug/tests/CMakeFiles/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_ut.dir/tests/ut_generate_hex_path.cpp.gcda:
cannot merge previous GCDA file: corrupt arc tag (0x65646f6e)
I don't have to say that this make reading test run results at least difficult. Above problem vanished when I remove all gcda files generated previously. So there are two possible solutions.
I may miss some valuable configuration of code coverage data (ie. call lcov --zerocounters
FIND_PROGRAM( LCOV_PATH lcov )
COMMAND ${LCOV_PATH} -z --directory ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}}
I need to add custom target removing all gcda files before test run is committed.
How should I approach this problem?

I think you might be doing something unusual in your workflow, as the problem you're seeing shouldn't happen all of the time. But, what I've added here should help you figure that out, or work around it completely.
Firstly, you should take advantage of CMake's build-types and create your own "coverage type".
## coverage flags
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_COVERAGE "-g -O0 -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage" CACHE STRING "Flags used by the C++ compiler during coverage builds.")
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_COVERAGE "-g -O0 -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage" CACHE STRING "Flags used by the C compiler during coverage builds.")
set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE "-g -O0 -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage" CACHE STRING "Flags used for linking binaries during coverage builds.")
set(CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE "-g -O0 -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage" CACHE STRING "Flags used by the shared libraries linker during coverage builds.")
mark_as_advanced(
CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_COVERAGE
CMAKE_C_FLAGS_COVERAGE
CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE
CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE)
## Update the documentation string of CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE for GUIs
set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}" CACHE STRING "Choose the type of build, options are: None Debug Release RelWithDebInfo MinSizeRel RelWithAssert Coverage." FORCE)
Then create a custom target.
## create our "make coverage" target
add_custom_target(coverage
COMMAND if test ! -d ../output \; then mkdir ../output\; fi
COMMAND find ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR} -name \*.gcda -delete
COMMAND lcov -b CMakeFiles/ -d . -z
COMMAND lcov -b -d . -c -i -o test_base.info
COMMAND ./env-shell.sh ctest -j2 || true
COMMAND lcov -b CMakeFiles/ -d . -c -o test_run.info
COMMAND lcov -b CMakeFiles/ -d . -a test_base.info -a test_run.info -o test_total.info
COMMAND lcov -o reports.info -r test_total.info '/usr/include/*' '/usr/local/*' '/cvmfs/*' '*/numpy' '/usr/lib/gcc/*' ${p} '${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/CMakeFiles/' '${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/steamshovel/*'
COMMAND genhtml --ignore-errors source --legend -o ../output/`date +%Y-%m-%d` reports.info
)
Now, taking advantage of out-of-source builds, run cmake in a "coverage" directory parallel to your source.
$ pwd
/home/user/my_project/src
$ mkdir ../coverage
$ cd ../coverage
$ cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Coverage ../src
[ ... cmake's output here ...]
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /home/user/my_project/coverage
$
Now, build your project, and your tests, and run your "coverage" target.
$ make
$ make test-bins
$ make coverage
[ ... make's output here ... ]
$
The make coverage target we defined in our CMakeLists.txt will:
if it doesn't exist, create an "output" directory parallel to our source and build directories
find and delete all *.gcda files in our current build directory
zero and initialize our lcov counters and output file
run our tests via ctest
"compile" the lcov output and generate our HTML coverage report
Note that you may need to adjust things for your particular project.
At this point I highly recommend automating all of this. Add it to your continuous integration, if you have some, or even set up a cron job so that this runs overnight and you have a fresh new coverage report to start your day. (These examples are from a working project that does a nightly coverage report handled by buildbot.)

Related

gcov produces different results on Clang and GCC

I'm trying to understand how to properly structure a C++ project by using CMake, googletest, and gcov for test coverage. I would like to build a general CMakeLists.txt that would work for any platform/compiler.
This is my first attempt. However, if I try to build the project and then run lcov (to generate the report), I see that I have different results if I use CLang (right result) or GCC (wrong result).
Note that I'm on MacOs and I installed gcc through brew (brew install gcc).
Moreover I used the following flags in my main CMakeLists.txt:
if(CODE_COVERAGE)
SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage" )
endif()
Note: If you find something wrong/weird in my CMakeLists.txt files or lcov usage, I'm open to any kind of feedback!
My library
#include "library.h"
#include <iostream>
void foo(){
std::cout << "Foo!" << std::endl;
}
void bar(int n){
if (n > 0){
std::cout << "n is grater than 0!" << std::endl;
}
else if (n < 0){
std::cout << "n is less than 0!" << std::endl;
}
else{
std::cout << "n is exactly 0!" << std::endl;
}
}
void baz(){ // LCOV_EXCL_START
std::cout << "Baz!" << std::endl;
}
// LCOV_EXCL_STOP
My tests
#ifndef GCOV_TUTORIAL_TEST_LIBRARY_H
#define GCOV_TUTORIAL_TEST_LIBRARY_H
#include "../src/library.h"
#include <gtest/gtest.h>
namespace gcov_tutorial::tests {
TEST(TestFooSuite,TestFoo){
foo();
}
TEST(TestBarSuite,TestBarGreaterThanZero){
bar(100);
}
TEST(TestBarSuite,TestBarEqualToZero){
//bar(0);
}
TEST(TestBarSuite,TestBarLessThanZero){
bar(-100);
}
}
#endif //GCOV_TUTORIAL_TEST_LIBRARY_H
CLang Compilation
#!/bin/bash
# Rationale: https://vaneyckt.io/posts/safer_bash_scripts_with_set_euxo_pipefail/
set -euxo pipefail
# BASE_DIR is the project's directory, containing the src/ and tests/ folders.
BASE_DIR=$PWD
COVERAGE_FILE=coverage.info
GCOV_PATH=/usr/bin/gcov
CLANG_PATH=/usr/bin/clang
CLANGPP_PATH=/usr/bin/clang++
rm -rf build
mkdir build && cd build
# Configure
cmake -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=$CLANG_PATH -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=$CLANGPP_PATH -DCODE_COVERAGE=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
# Build (for Make on Unix equivalent to `make -j $(nproc)`)
cmake --build . --config Release
# Clean-up for any previous run.
rm -f $COVERAGE_FILE
lcov --zerocounters --directory .
# Run tests
./tests/RunTests
# Create coverage report by taking into account only the files contained in src/
lcov --capture --directory tests/ -o $COVERAGE_FILE --include "$BASE_DIR/src/*" --gcov-tool $GCOV_PATH
# Create HTML report in the out/ directory
genhtml $COVERAGE_FILE --output-directory out
# Show coverage report to the terminal
lcov --list $COVERAGE_FILE
# Open HTML
open out/index.html
GCC Compilation
#!/bin/bash
# Rationale: https://vaneyckt.io/posts/safer_bash_scripts_with_set_euxo_pipefail/
set -euxo pipefail
# BASE_DIR is the project's directory, containing the src/ and tests/ folders.
BASE_DIR=$PWD
COVERAGE_FILE=coverage.info
GCOV_PATH=/usr/local/bin/gcov-11
GCC_PATH=/usr/local/bin/gcc-11
GPP_PATH=/usr/local/bin/g++-11
rm -rf build
mkdir build && cd build
# Configure
cmake -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=$GCC_PATH -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=$GPP_PATH -DCODE_COVERAGE=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
# Build (for Make on Unix equivalent to `make -j $(nproc)`)
cmake --build . --config Release
# Clean-up for any previous run.
rm -f $COVERAGE_FILE
lcov --zerocounters --directory .
# Run tests
./tests/RunTests
# Create coverage report by taking into account only the files contained in src/
lcov --capture --directory tests/ -o $COVERAGE_FILE --include "$BASE_DIR/src/*" --gcov-tool $GCOV_PATH
# Create HTML report in the out/ directory
genhtml $COVERAGE_FILE --output-directory out
# Show coverage report to the terminal
lcov --list $COVERAGE_FILE
# Open HTML
open out/index.html
You are actually asking two questions, here.
Why do the coverage results differ between these two compilers?
How do I structure a CMake project for code coverage?
Answer 1: Coverage differences
The simple answer here is that you are building in Release mode, rather than RelWithDebInfo mode. GCC does not put as much debugging information in by default as Clang does. On my system, adding -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-g" to your build-and-run-cov-gcc.sh script yields the same results as Clang, as does building in RelWithDebInfo.
For whatever reason, it appears that Clang tracks more debug information either by default or when coverage is enabled. GCC does not have these same guardrails. The lesson to take away is this: collecting coverage information is a form of debugging; you must use a debugging-aware configuration for your compiler if you want accurate results.
Answer 2: Build system structure
It is generally a terrible idea to set CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS inside your build. That variable is intended to be a hook for your build's users to inject their own flags. As I detail in another answer on this site, the modern approach to storing such settings is in the presets
I would get rid of the if (CODE_COVERAGE) section of your top-level CMakeLists.txt and then create the following CMakePresets.json file:
{
"version": 4,
"cmakeMinimumRequired": {
"major": 3,
"minor": 23,
"patch": 0
},
"configurePresets": [
{
"name": "gcc-coverage",
"displayName": "Code coverage (GCC)",
"description": "Enable code coverage on GCC-compatible compilers",
"binaryDir": "${sourceDir}/build",
"cacheVariables": {
"CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE": "RelWithDebInfo",
"CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS": "-fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage"
}
}
],
"buildPresets": [
{
"name": "gcc-coverage",
"configurePreset": "gcc-coverage",
"configuration": "RelWithDebInfo"
}
]
}
Then your build script can be simplified considerably.
#!/bin/bash
# Rationale: https://vaneyckt.io/posts/safer_bash_scripts_with_set_euxo_pipefail/
set -euxo pipefail
# Set up defaults for CC, CXX, GCOV_PATH
export CC="${CC:-gcc-11}"
export CXX="${CXX:-g++-11}"
: "${GCOV_PATH:=gcov-11}"
# Record the base directory
BASE_DIR=$PWD
# Clean up old build
rm -rf build
# Configure
cmake --preset gcc-coverage
# Build
cmake --build --preset gcc-coverage
# Enter build directory
cd build
# Clean-up counters for any previous run.
lcov --zerocounters --directory .
# Run tests
./tests/RunTests
# Create coverage report by taking into account only the files contained in src/
lcov --capture --directory tests/ -o coverage.info --include "$BASE_DIR/src/*" --gcov-tool $GCOV_PATH
# Create HTML report in the out/ directory
genhtml coverage.info --output-directory out
# Show coverage report to the terminal
lcov --list coverage.info
# Open HTML
open out/index.html
The key here is the following lines:
# Configure
cmake --preset gcc-coverage
# Build
cmake --build --preset gcc-coverage
This script now lets you vary the compiler and coverage tool via environment variables and the CMakeLists.txt doesn't have to make any assumptions about what compiler is being used.
On my (Linux) system, I can run the following commands successfully:
$ CC=gcc-12 CXX=g++-12 GCOV=gcov-12 ./build-and-run-cov.sh
$ CC=clang-13 CXX=clang++-13 GCOV=$PWD/llvm-cov-13.sh ./build-and-run-cov.sh
Where llvm-cov-13.sh is a wrapper for llvm-cov-13 for compatibility with the --gcov-tool flag. See this answer for more detail.
#!/bin/bash
exec llvm-cov-13 gcov "$#"
As you can see, the results are indistinguishable now that the correct flags are used.

CMake toolchain file - setting CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS

I have seen the following way of setting CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS in the toolchain file:
SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-m32" CACHE STRING "C++ compiler flags" FORCE)
Should I use it in the toolchain file instead of
SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -m32")
?
What are differences between them ?
tl;dr: there are two acceptable ways of doing this.
First, and most of the time (90%+), you can use the _INIT variables as suggested by the documentation:
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_INIT "-m32")
Second, if CMake is adding incorrect/conflicting flags for your compiler/platform combination, you can override it completely by setting the cache variable without FORCE.
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-m32" CACHE STRING "C++ compiler flags")
Read on for further details.
Let's run a few experiments. We'll use the following CMakeLists.txt:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.23)
project(test LANGUAGES CXX)
message(STATUS "CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = ${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG}")
On most systems, CMake leaves CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS blank by default. The main exception is Windows with MSVC, where it adds /EHsc and (on older versions) /GR to ensure that standard C++ exception handling and RTTI are enabled.
Since I don't have ready access to a Windows system, I use CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG, which does have default-initialized flags on most compilers. The same principles apply, though, since it is the responsibility of the platform module to set these in both cases.
Experiment 1: No toolchain file
$ cmake -S . -B build
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 11.2.0
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ - skipped
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = -g
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /path/to/build
So on this compiler, CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG is set to -g. This is our baseline.
Experiment 2: Set-cache with force
Now we'll create a toolchain file called set-cache-force.cmake:
# set-cache-force.cmake
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "-DMY_DEBUG" CACHE STRING "C++ compiler flags" FORCE)
We'll configure the project with this toolchain:
$ rm -rf build
$ cmake -S . -B build --toolchain set-cache-force.cmake
...
-- CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = -DMY_DEBUG
...
As we can see, the original -g flag was suppressed and the -DMY_DEBUG cache value "won". Of course, this isn't really a debug mode anymore, which should illustrate why overriding all the flags isn't always what we want.
Even worse, using FORCE here disables a user's ability to override CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG themselves:
$ rm -rf build
$ cmake -S . -B build --toolchain set-cache-force.cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG="-DOVERRIDE"
...
-- CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = -DMY_DEBUG
...
This is highly undesirable behavior. A user would need to edit your toolchain file to work around a bug or add further customizations.
Experiment 3: Set-cache without force
If we run the same experiment as before without FORCE setting it, then we still get the same flags, but we retain the ability to incrementally override the toolchain file.
# set-cache.cmake
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "-DMY_DEBUG" CACHE STRING "C++ compiler flags")
Now we can see that it works:
$ rm -rf build
$ cmake -S . -B build --toolchain set-cache.cmake
...
-- CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = -DMY_DEBUG
...
And that it can still be overridden:
$ rm -rf build
$ cmake -S . -B build --toolchain set-cache.cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG="-DOVERRIDE"
...
-- CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = -DOVERRIDE
...
And it can even be overridden again:
$ cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG="-DOVERRIDE2"
...
-- CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = -DOVERRIDE2
...
Experiment 4: Set normal variable
Now we'll try to set this as a normal variable. Again, we'll create a toolchain file called set-normal.cmake:
# set-normal.cmake
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "-DMY_DEBUG")
Again, running this shows that -DMY_DEBUG "wins", overriding CMake's default flags:
$ cmake -S . -B build --toolchain set-normal.cmake
...
-- CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = -DMY_DEBUG
...
Like experiment 2, this prevents users from overriding it... bad!
$ cmake -S . -B build --toolchain set-normal.cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG="-DOVERRIDE"
...
-- CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = -DMY_DEBUG
...
Experiment 5: Append normal variable
Now we'll try with the code in your post. Again, we'll use a toolchain called append-normal.cmake:
# append-normal.cmake
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG} -DMY_DEBUG")
Now we get a very different result:
$ rm -rf build
$ cmake -S . -B build --toolchain append-normal.cmake
...
-- CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = -DMY_DEBUG -DMY_DEBUG
...
This is just completely wrong! What happened here? Well, the toolchain file gets read multiple times during project initialization, and here this causes the -DMY_DEBUG flag to be appended twice. At least that's what happens on the first run:
$ cmake -S . -B build
...
-- CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = -g -DMY_DEBUG
...
After the first run, the CMake default gets cached and so we append to that on subsequent runs. Furthermore, CMake only reads your toolchain file once now.
You must always make your toolchain files idempotent. That means that running it twice does the same thing as running it once.
Experiment 6: Using _INIT variables
This is the developer-intended way of doing things per the documentation. See the documentation here: https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/variable/CMAKE_LANG_FLAGS_INIT.html
Value used to initialize the CMAKE_<LANG>_FLAGS cache entry the first time a build tree is configured for language <LANG>. This variable is meant to be set by a toolchain file. CMake may prepend or append content to the value based on the environment and target platform.
Now we use a toolchain file called init-var.cmake:
# init-var.cmake
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG_INIT "-DMY_DEBUG")
And we re-run the build:
$ rm -rf build
$ cmake -S . -B build --toolchain init-var.cmake
...
-- CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = -DMY_DEBUG -g
...
Now we can see that CMake appended its default flags to the initial ones we provided. And indeed this still allows users to override things:
$ cmake -S . -B build --toolchain init-var.cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG="-DOVERRIDE"
...
-- CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG = -DOVERRIDE
...
In my experience, 90%+ of the time it's correct to let CMake add in its extra flags using Experiment 6 (the _INIT variables). But every so often you'll want to completely override CMake using Experiment 3 (set(CACHE) without FORCE).
What you do not want to do is anything that behaves differently on subsequent runs (like experiment 5) or that disables key CMake functionality (ie. respecting the cache variable, like experiments 2 and 4).
When you use set(variable "value" CACHE STRING "..." FORCE), the variable is set for all the projects built in the current session (including those that are in the sub-directories).
But simply using set(variable "value") without the cache part only adds the flags for the immediate project scope (current CMakeLists.txt) and not the upper directories that have their own CMakeLists.txt.

Why does gcovr generate empty coverage statistics?

I'm confused about how to use gcov. I've got a cmake project that has two test executables which use googletest. I've added the required flags to my cmake script:
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage -g -O0")
And I've recompiled my code (using CLion and g++ 10.1).
Now I switch to the build directory and manually run both test suites. This, according to the docs should generate some files that can be used to generate the coverage report. Now I should be able to run
gcovr .
from the root of the build tree (right?), however the output is this:
(base) ciaran#DESKTOP-K0APGUV:/mnt/d/libOmexMeta/cmake-build-release-wsl-ubuntu1804-gcc101$ gcovr .
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GCC Code Coverage Report
Directory: .
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
File Lines Exec Cover Missing
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL 0 0 --%
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Any idea what I've doing wrong?
#Edit
Also running
gcovr -r . --html --html-details -o example-html-details.html
Works, but generate an empty report
You have to give the source files:
-r , --root
The root directory of your source files. Defaults to ‘.’, the current directory. File names are reported relative to this root.
If you build and run out of sources dir it may fail to find what it needs.

CMake produces object files with .obj extension instead of .o [duplicate]

I'm struggling to get coverage information for gcov. No errors during compilation and linking, but when I run the executable, no coverage data is produced.
I'm using CMake with a separate build directory, passing flags to the compiler and linker in this way:
add_definitions(--coverage)
set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS ${CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS} " --coverage")
Does the executable expect the source code to be in a specific location?
What do I have to add to my CMakeLists.txt to get things going?
Kind regards,
Bjoern
CMake seems to put the code coverage (*.gcda, *.gcdo) files with the object files of your project. If your executable was named "tester" then they would appear in the following path
${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/CMakeFiles/tester.dir/
CMake seems to name the source files in a way that isn't very compatible with gcov though. For example if I had a source file called "mytestprog.cpp" it would be build
mytestprog.cpp.o
mytestprog.cpp.gcda
mytestprog.cpp.gcdno
where as gcov seems to expect
mytestprog.gcda
mytestprog.gcdno
I'm not really sure how to fix it. I've tried using LCov instead and that "appeared" to work but I'm not really sure if it did.
Delcypher pointed out the problem.
Solution 1: you can ask cmake to name object files as main.o instead of main.cpp.o etc. using the undocumented CMAKE_CXX_OUTPUT_EXTENSION_REPLACE switch:
cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_OUTPUT_EXTENSION_REPLACE=ON ...
Solution 2: if you do not need the .gcov files you can call lcov from the build directory:
lcov --capture --directory . --output-file coverage.info
genhtml coverage.info --output-directory out
You will find the coverage information in the out directory in html form.
Not sure where you got --coverage from, but these are the arguments I use on Linux to get coverage information using gcc and gcov:
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage")
set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS
"${CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS} -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage")
Here's what gcc --help --verbose has to say about those options:
-ftest-coverage Create
data files needed by "gcov"
-fprofile-arcs Insert
arc-based program profiling code
You don't need to pass --coverage to the linker. --coverage will pass -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage to the compiler and -lgcov to the linker.
Are you sure that it isn't creating any gcdo or gcda files? Where are you looking for these files? It should put the gcov file for each object file into the same directory as the object file. Do a find for .gcda files at the top of your build directory. If nothing shows up, gcov might not be getting linked in. Run the following command to see if it is:
nm name_of_binary | grep "gcov"
If it is getting linked in, then gcov might not have permission to write files to where you are running the executable. If it has permission, then I am stumped.

gcov with CMake using a separate build directory

I'm struggling to get coverage information for gcov. No errors during compilation and linking, but when I run the executable, no coverage data is produced.
I'm using CMake with a separate build directory, passing flags to the compiler and linker in this way:
add_definitions(--coverage)
set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS ${CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS} " --coverage")
Does the executable expect the source code to be in a specific location?
What do I have to add to my CMakeLists.txt to get things going?
Kind regards,
Bjoern
CMake seems to put the code coverage (*.gcda, *.gcdo) files with the object files of your project. If your executable was named "tester" then they would appear in the following path
${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/CMakeFiles/tester.dir/
CMake seems to name the source files in a way that isn't very compatible with gcov though. For example if I had a source file called "mytestprog.cpp" it would be build
mytestprog.cpp.o
mytestprog.cpp.gcda
mytestprog.cpp.gcdno
where as gcov seems to expect
mytestprog.gcda
mytestprog.gcdno
I'm not really sure how to fix it. I've tried using LCov instead and that "appeared" to work but I'm not really sure if it did.
Delcypher pointed out the problem.
Solution 1: you can ask cmake to name object files as main.o instead of main.cpp.o etc. using the undocumented CMAKE_CXX_OUTPUT_EXTENSION_REPLACE switch:
cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_OUTPUT_EXTENSION_REPLACE=ON ...
Solution 2: if you do not need the .gcov files you can call lcov from the build directory:
lcov --capture --directory . --output-file coverage.info
genhtml coverage.info --output-directory out
You will find the coverage information in the out directory in html form.
Not sure where you got --coverage from, but these are the arguments I use on Linux to get coverage information using gcc and gcov:
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage")
set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS
"${CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS} -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage")
Here's what gcc --help --verbose has to say about those options:
-ftest-coverage Create
data files needed by "gcov"
-fprofile-arcs Insert
arc-based program profiling code
You don't need to pass --coverage to the linker. --coverage will pass -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage to the compiler and -lgcov to the linker.
Are you sure that it isn't creating any gcdo or gcda files? Where are you looking for these files? It should put the gcov file for each object file into the same directory as the object file. Do a find for .gcda files at the top of your build directory. If nothing shows up, gcov might not be getting linked in. Run the following command to see if it is:
nm name_of_binary | grep "gcov"
If it is getting linked in, then gcov might not have permission to write files to where you are running the executable. If it has permission, then I am stumped.