429 lines
18 KiB
ReStructuredText
429 lines
18 KiB
ReStructuredText
==========================
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Source-based Code Coverage
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==========================
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.. contents::
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:local:
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Introduction
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============
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This document explains how to use clang's source-based code coverage feature.
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It's called "source-based" because it operates on AST and preprocessor
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information directly. This allows it to generate very precise coverage data.
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Clang ships two other code coverage implementations:
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* :doc:`SanitizerCoverage` - A low-overhead tool meant for use alongside the
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various sanitizers. It can provide up to edge-level coverage.
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* gcov - A GCC-compatible coverage implementation which operates on DebugInfo.
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This is enabled by ``-ftest-coverage`` or ``--coverage``.
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From this point onwards "code coverage" will refer to the source-based kind.
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The code coverage workflow
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==========================
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The code coverage workflow consists of three main steps:
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* Compiling with coverage enabled.
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* Running the instrumented program.
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* Creating coverage reports.
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The next few sections work through a complete, copy-'n-paste friendly example
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based on this program:
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.. code-block:: cpp
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% cat <<EOF > foo.cc
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#define BAR(x) ((x) || (x))
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template <typename T> void foo(T x) {
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for (unsigned I = 0; I < 10; ++I) { BAR(I); }
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}
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int main() {
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foo<int>(0);
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foo<float>(0);
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return 0;
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}
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EOF
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Compiling with coverage enabled
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===============================
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To compile code with coverage enabled, pass ``-fprofile-instr-generate
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-fcoverage-mapping`` to the compiler:
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.. code-block:: console
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# Step 1: Compile with coverage enabled.
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% clang++ -fprofile-instr-generate -fcoverage-mapping foo.cc -o foo
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Note that linking together code with and without coverage instrumentation is
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supported. Uninstrumented code simply won't be accounted for in reports.
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Running the instrumented program
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================================
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The next step is to run the instrumented program. When the program exits it
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will write a **raw profile** to the path specified by the ``LLVM_PROFILE_FILE``
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environment variable. If that variable does not exist, the profile is written
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to ``default.profraw`` in the current directory of the program. If
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``LLVM_PROFILE_FILE`` contains a path to a non-existent directory, the missing
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directory structure will be created. Additionally, the following special
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**pattern strings** are rewritten:
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* "%p" expands out to the process ID.
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* "%h" expands out to the hostname of the machine running the program.
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* "%t" expands out to the value of the ``TMPDIR`` environment variable. On
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Darwin, this is typically set to a temporary scratch directory.
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* "%Nm" expands out to the instrumented binary's signature. When this pattern
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is specified, the runtime creates a pool of N raw profiles which are used for
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on-line profile merging. The runtime takes care of selecting a raw profile
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from the pool, locking it, and updating it before the program exits. If N is
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not specified (i.e the pattern is "%m"), it's assumed that ``N = 1``. N must
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be between 1 and 9. The merge pool specifier can only occur once per filename
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pattern.
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* "%c" expands out to nothing, but enables a mode in which profile counter
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updates are continuously synced to a file. This means that if the
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instrumented program crashes, or is killed by a signal, perfect coverage
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information can still be recovered. Continuous mode does not support value
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profiling for PGO, and is only supported on Darwin at the moment. Support for
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Linux may be mostly complete but requires testing, and support for Windows
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may require more extensive changes: please get involved if you are interested
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in porting this feature.
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.. code-block:: console
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# Step 2: Run the program.
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% LLVM_PROFILE_FILE="foo.profraw" ./foo
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Note that continuous mode is also used on Fuchsia where it's the only supported
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mode, but the implementation is different. The Darwin and Linux implementation
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relies on padding and the ability to map a file over the existing memory
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mapping which is generally only available on POSIX systems and isn't suitable
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for other platforms.
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On Fuchsia, we rely on the ability to relocate counters at runtime using a
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level of indirection. On every counter access, we add a bias to the counter
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address. This bias is stored in ``__llvm_profile_counter_bias`` symbol that's
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provided by the profile runtime and is initially set to zero, meaning no
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relocation. The runtime can map the profile into memory at arbitrary locations,
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and set bias to the offset between the original and the new counter location,
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at which point every subsequent counter access will be to the new location,
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which allows updating profile directly akin to the continuous mode.
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The advantage of this approach is that doesn't require any special OS support.
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The disadvantage is the extra overhead due to additional instructions required
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for each counter access (overhead both in terms of binary size and performance)
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plus duplication of counters (i.e. one copy in the binary itself and another
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copy that's mapped into memory). This implementation can be also enabled for
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other platforms by passing the ``-runtime-counter-relocation`` option to the
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backend during compilation.
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.. code-block:: console
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% clang++ -fprofile-instr-generate -fcoverage-mapping -mllvm -runtime-counter-relocation foo.cc -o foo
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Creating coverage reports
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=========================
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Raw profiles have to be **indexed** before they can be used to generate
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coverage reports. This is done using the "merge" tool in ``llvm-profdata``
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(which can combine multiple raw profiles and index them at the same time):
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.. code-block:: console
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# Step 3(a): Index the raw profile.
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% llvm-profdata merge -sparse foo.profraw -o foo.profdata
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There are multiple different ways to render coverage reports. The simplest
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option is to generate a line-oriented report:
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.. code-block:: console
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# Step 3(b): Create a line-oriented coverage report.
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% llvm-cov show ./foo -instr-profile=foo.profdata
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This report includes a summary view as well as dedicated sub-views for
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templated functions and their instantiations. For our example program, we get
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distinct views for ``foo<int>(...)`` and ``foo<float>(...)``. If
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``-show-line-counts-or-regions`` is enabled, ``llvm-cov`` displays sub-line
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region counts (even in macro expansions):
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.. code-block:: none
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1| 20|#define BAR(x) ((x) || (x))
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^20 ^2
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2| 2|template <typename T> void foo(T x) {
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3| 22| for (unsigned I = 0; I < 10; ++I) { BAR(I); }
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^22 ^20 ^20^20
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4| 2|}
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------------------
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| void foo<int>(int):
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| 2| 1|template <typename T> void foo(T x) {
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| 3| 11| for (unsigned I = 0; I < 10; ++I) { BAR(I); }
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| ^11 ^10 ^10^10
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| 4| 1|}
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------------------
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| void foo<float>(int):
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| 2| 1|template <typename T> void foo(T x) {
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| 3| 11| for (unsigned I = 0; I < 10; ++I) { BAR(I); }
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| ^11 ^10 ^10^10
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| 4| 1|}
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------------------
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If ``--show-branches=count`` and ``--show-expansions`` are also enabled, the
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sub-views will show detailed branch coverage information in addition to the
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region counts:
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.. code-block:: none
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------------------
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| void foo<float>(int):
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| 2| 1|template <typename T> void foo(T x) {
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| 3| 11| for (unsigned I = 0; I < 10; ++I) { BAR(I); }
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| ^11 ^10 ^10^10
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| ------------------
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| | | 1| 10|#define BAR(x) ((x) || (x))
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| | | ^10 ^1
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| | | ------------------
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| | | | Branch (1:17): [True: 9, False: 1]
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| | | | Branch (1:24): [True: 0, False: 1]
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| | | ------------------
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| ------------------
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| | Branch (3:23): [True: 10, False: 1]
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| ------------------
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------------------
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To generate a file-level summary of coverage statistics instead of a
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line-oriented report, try:
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.. code-block:: console
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# Step 3(c): Create a coverage summary.
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% llvm-cov report ./foo -instr-profile=foo.profdata
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Filename Regions Missed Regions Cover Functions Missed Functions Executed Lines Missed Lines Cover Branches Missed Branches Cover
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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/tmp/foo.cc 13 0 100.00% 3 0 100.00% 13 0 100.00% 12 2 83.33%
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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TOTAL 13 0 100.00% 3 0 100.00% 13 0 100.00% 12 2 83.33%
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The ``llvm-cov`` tool supports specifying a custom demangler, writing out
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reports in a directory structure, and generating html reports. For the full
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list of options, please refer to the `command guide
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<https://llvm.org/docs/CommandGuide/llvm-cov.html>`_.
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A few final notes:
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* The ``-sparse`` flag is optional but can result in dramatically smaller
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indexed profiles. This option should not be used if the indexed profile will
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be reused for PGO.
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* Raw profiles can be discarded after they are indexed. Advanced use of the
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profile runtime library allows an instrumented program to merge profiling
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information directly into an existing raw profile on disk. The details are
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out of scope.
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* The ``llvm-profdata`` tool can be used to merge together multiple raw or
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indexed profiles. To combine profiling data from multiple runs of a program,
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try e.g:
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.. code-block:: console
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% llvm-profdata merge -sparse foo1.profraw foo2.profdata -o foo3.profdata
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Exporting coverage data
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=======================
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Coverage data can be exported into JSON using the ``llvm-cov export``
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sub-command. There is a comprehensive reference which defines the structure of
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the exported data at a high level in the llvm-cov source code.
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Interpreting reports
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====================
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There are four statistics tracked in a coverage summary:
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* Function coverage is the percentage of functions which have been executed at
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least once. A function is considered to be executed if any of its
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instantiations are executed.
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* Instantiation coverage is the percentage of function instantiations which
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have been executed at least once. Template functions and static inline
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functions from headers are two kinds of functions which may have multiple
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instantiations.
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* Line coverage is the percentage of code lines which have been executed at
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least once. Only executable lines within function bodies are considered to be
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code lines.
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* Region coverage is the percentage of code regions which have been executed at
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least once. A code region may span multiple lines (e.g in a large function
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body with no control flow). However, it's also possible for a single line to
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contain multiple code regions (e.g in "return x || y && z").
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* Branch coverage is the percentage of "true" and "false" branches that have
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been taken at least once. Each branch is tied to individual conditions in the
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source code that may each evaluate to either "true" or "false". These
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conditions may comprise larger boolean expressions linked by boolean logical
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operators. For example, "x = (y == 2) || (z < 10)" is a boolean expression
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that is comprised of two individual conditions, each of which evaluates to
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either true or false, producing four total branch outcomes.
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Of these five statistics, function coverage is usually the least granular while
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branch coverage is the most granular. 100% branch coverage for a function
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implies 100% region coverage for a function. The project-wide totals for each
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statistic are listed in the summary.
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Format compatibility guarantees
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===============================
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* There are no backwards or forwards compatibility guarantees for the raw
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profile format. Raw profiles may be dependent on the specific compiler
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revision used to generate them. It's inadvisable to store raw profiles for
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long periods of time.
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* Tools must retain **backwards** compatibility with indexed profile formats.
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These formats are not forwards-compatible: i.e, a tool which uses format
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version X will not be able to understand format version (X+k).
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* Tools must also retain **backwards** compatibility with the format of the
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coverage mappings emitted into instrumented binaries. These formats are not
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forwards-compatible.
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* The JSON coverage export format has a (major, minor, patch) version triple.
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Only a major version increment indicates a backwards-incompatible change. A
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minor version increment is for added functionality, and patch version
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increments are for bugfixes.
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Using the profiling runtime without static initializers
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=======================================================
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By default the compiler runtime uses a static initializer to determine the
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profile output path and to register a writer function. To collect profiles
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without using static initializers, do this manually:
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* Export a ``int __llvm_profile_runtime`` symbol from each instrumented shared
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library and executable. When the linker finds a definition of this symbol, it
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knows to skip loading the object which contains the profiling runtime's
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static initializer.
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* Forward-declare ``void __llvm_profile_initialize_file(void)`` and call it
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once from each instrumented executable. This function parses
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``LLVM_PROFILE_FILE``, sets the output path, and truncates any existing files
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at that path. To get the same behavior without truncating existing files,
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pass a filename pattern string to ``void __llvm_profile_set_filename(char
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*)``. These calls can be placed anywhere so long as they precede all calls
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to ``__llvm_profile_write_file``.
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* Forward-declare ``int __llvm_profile_write_file(void)`` and call it to write
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out a profile. This function returns 0 when it succeeds, and a non-zero value
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otherwise. Calling this function multiple times appends profile data to an
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existing on-disk raw profile.
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In C++ files, declare these as ``extern "C"``.
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Collecting coverage reports for the llvm project
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================================================
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To prepare a coverage report for llvm (and any of its sub-projects), add
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``-DLLVM_BUILD_INSTRUMENTED_COVERAGE=On`` to the cmake configuration. Raw
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profiles will be written to ``$BUILD_DIR/profiles/``. To prepare an html
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report, run ``llvm/utils/prepare-code-coverage-artifact.py``.
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To specify an alternate directory for raw profiles, use
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``-DLLVM_PROFILE_DATA_DIR``. To change the size of the profile merge pool, use
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``-DLLVM_PROFILE_MERGE_POOL_SIZE``.
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Drawbacks and limitations
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=========================
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* Prior to version 2.26, the GNU binutils BFD linker is not able link programs
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compiled with ``-fcoverage-mapping`` in its ``--gc-sections`` mode. Possible
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workarounds include disabling ``--gc-sections``, upgrading to a newer version
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of BFD, or using the Gold linker.
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* Code coverage does not handle unpredictable changes in control flow or stack
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unwinding in the presence of exceptions precisely. Consider the following
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function:
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.. code-block:: cpp
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int f() {
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may_throw();
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return 0;
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}
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If the call to ``may_throw()`` propagates an exception into ``f``, the code
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coverage tool may mark the ``return`` statement as executed even though it is
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not. A call to ``longjmp()`` can have similar effects.
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Clang implementation details
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============================
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This section may be of interest to those wishing to understand or improve
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the clang code coverage implementation.
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Gap regions
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-----------
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Gap regions are source regions with counts. A reporting tool cannot set a line
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execution count to the count from a gap region unless that region is the only
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one on a line.
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Gap regions are used to eliminate unnatural artifacts in coverage reports, such
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as red "unexecuted" highlights present at the end of an otherwise covered line,
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or blue "executed" highlights present at the start of a line that is otherwise
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not executed.
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Branch regions
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--------------
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When viewing branch coverage details in source-based file-level sub-views using
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``--show-branches``, it is recommended that users show all macro expansions
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(using option ``--show-expansions``) since macros may contain hidden branch
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conditions. The coverage summary report will always include these macro-based
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boolean expressions in the overall branch coverage count for a function or
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source file.
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Branch coverage is not tracked for constant folded branch conditions since
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branches are not generated for these cases. In the source-based file-level
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sub-view, these branches will simply be shown as ``[Folded - Ignored]`` so that
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users are informed about what happened.
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Branch coverage is tied directly to branch-generating conditions in the source
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code. Users should not see hidden branches that aren't actually tied to the
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source code.
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Switch statements
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-----------------
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The region mapping for a switch body consists of a gap region that covers the
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entire body (starting from the '{' in 'switch (...) {', and terminating where the
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last case ends). This gap region has a zero count: this causes "gap" areas in
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between case statements, which contain no executable code, to appear uncovered.
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When a switch case is visited, the parent region is extended: if the parent
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region has no start location, its start location becomes the start of the case.
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This is used to support switch statements without a ``CompoundStmt`` body, in
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which the switch body and the single case share a count.
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For switches with ``CompoundStmt`` bodies, a new region is created at the start
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of each switch case.
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Branch regions are also generated for each switch case, including the default
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case. If there is no explicitly defined default case in the source code, a
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branch region is generated to correspond to the implicit default case that is
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generated by the compiler. The implicit branch region is tied to the line and
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column number of the switch statement condition since no source code for the
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implicit case exists.
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