COVER(1)              User Contributed Perl Documentation             COVER(1)


NAME
       cover - report coverage statistics

VERSION
       version 1.44

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.

SEE ALSO
       Devel::Cover

BUGS
       Did I mention that this is alpha code?

       See the BUGS file.

LICENCE
       Copyright 2001-2024, 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 v5.40.0                      2024-09-01                          COVER(1)