GCOV(1)

✨ gcov(1) ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to gcov, a GNU thing, section 1 of the manual. it's the coverage testing tool and honestly? it's giving main character energy for anyone who's ever shipped code and prayed. 💅

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

gcov — the coverage testing tool. that's it, that's the whole name. iconic.

---

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

gcov [-v|--version] [-h|--help]
     [-a|--all-blocks]
     [-b|--branch-probabilities]
     [-c|--branch-counts]
     [-g|--conditions]
     [-e|--prime-paths]
     [--prime-paths-lines[=type]]
     [--prime-paths-source[=type]]
     [-d|--display-progress]
     [-f|--function-summaries]
     [--include regex]
     [--exclude regex]
     [-j|--json-format]
     [-H|--human-readable]
     [-k|--use-colors]
     [-l|--long-file-names]
     [-m|--demangled-names]
     [-M|--filter-on-demangled]
     [-n|--no-output]
     [-o|--object-directory directory|file]
     [-p|--preserve-paths]
     [-q|--use-hotness-colors]
     [-r|--relative-only]
     [-s|--source-prefix directory]
     [-t|--stdout]
     [-u|--unconditional-branches]
     [-x|--hash-filenames]
     files

like yes, it's a lot of flags. we'll get to every single one, don't worry. 🫶

---

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so gcov is a test coverage program. you run it in concert with GCC (they're a duo, fr fr) to analyze your programs so you can build more efficient, faster-running code and find the untested parts of your program. you can also use gcov as a profiling tool to figure out where your optimization efforts will actually do the most for your code. and you can run it alongside the other profiling tool, gprof, to suss out which parts of your code are eating the most computing time.

profiling tools help you analyze your code's performance. with a profiler like gcov or gprof you can find out some basic performance statistics, such as:

• how often each line of code executes
• what lines of code are actually executed
• how much computing time each section of code uses

once you know these things about how your code behaves when it's compiled, you can go module by module and see which ones should be optimized. gcov helps you figure out where to put in the optimization work. 🔥

software developers also use coverage testing together with testsuites, to make sure software is actually good enough to release. testsuites can verify that a program works as expected; a coverage program tests how much of the program is exercised by the testsuite. then developers can figure out what kinds of test cases need to be added to the testsuites, so both the testing and the final product get better.

⚠️ important vibe check: you should compile your code without optimization if you're planning to use gcov, because the optimization can combine some lines of code into one function, and then you're not getting as much information as you need to hunt down hot spots — the places where the code is using a whole lot of computer time. same energy with line resolution: because gcov accumulates statistics by line (at the lowest resolution), it works best with a programming style that puts only one statement on each line. if you use complicated macros that expand into loops or other control structures, the statistics are less helpful — they only report on the line where the macro call appears. and if your complex macros behave like functions, you can replace them with inline functions to fix that problem. 🧚

gcov creates a logfile called sourcefile.gcov which tells you how many times each line of a source file sourcefile.c has executed. you can use these logfiles along with gprof to help fine-tune the performance of your programs — gprof gives you timing information you can use alongside what you get from gcov.

gcov works only on code compiled with GCC. it is not compatible with any other profiling or test coverage mechanism. no cap. 💀

---

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -a, --all-blocks — write individual execution counts for every basic block. normally gcov only outputs execution counts for the main blocks of a line, but with this you can clock whether blocks within a single line aren't being executed. 👑
• -b, --branch-probabilities — write branch frequencies to the output file, and write branch summary info to standard output. this lets you see how often each branch in your program was taken. unconditional branches will not be shown, unless the -u option is given.
• -c, --branch-counts — write branch frequencies as the number of branches taken, rather than the percentage of branches taken.
• -g, --conditions — write condition coverage to the output file, and write condition summary info to standard output. this lets you see if the conditions in your program at least once had an independent effect on the outcome of the boolean expression (modified condition/decision coverage). heads up: this requires you to compile the source with -fcondition-coverage.
• -e, --prime-paths — write path coverage to the output file, and write path summary info to standard output. this lets you see how many prime paths were taken at least once. a path is a sequence of basic blocks. a path is simple if it has no repeated blocks (no loops) except maybe the first and last block, and prime if it is a simple path of maximal length. for the regular output this option only includes the number of paths covered. for more fine grained info on paths you can use --prime-paths-lines or --prime-paths-source. with --json-format all path details are included in the output. heads up: this requires you to compile the source with -fpath-coverage.
• --prime-paths-lines [=type] — write path coverage to the output file, and write path summary info to standard output. this lets you see how many prime paths were taken at least once, plus a dense report on the covered or uncovered paths and how to cover them. this mode is useful for automated reporting and progress tracking. type may be omitted, or one of:
  • uncovered — include the uncovered (not taken) paths. this is the default.
  • covered — include the covered (taken) paths.
  • both — include all paths. this is equivalent to using both covered and uncovered.

this is an example of --prime-paths-lines output:

        paths covered 12 of 15
        path  2 not covered: lines 8 8(false) 11(true) 11 13(true) 13(true) 14 17
        path  3 not covered: lines 8 8(false) 11(true) 11 13(true) 13(false) 16 17
        path  4 not covered: lines 8 8(false) 11(true) 11 13(false) 16 17

what this is saying: to cover path 2 you must run lines 8, 11, 13, 14, and 17, evaluating the decision at 8 as false and the decisions at 11 and 13 as "false". 💅

• --prime-paths-source [=type] — write path coverage to the output file, and write path summary info to standard output. this lets you see how many prime paths were taken at least once, plus a detailed report on the uncovered paths and how to cover them. this mode is useful for understanding paths and interactions between sections of your program. type may be omitted, or one of:
  • uncovered — include the uncovered (not taken) paths. this is the default.
  • covered — include the covered (taken) paths.
  • both — include all paths. this is equivalent to using both covered and uncovered.

this is an example of --prime-paths-source output:

        path 10 not covered:
        BB  3:           8:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        BB  3:           9:    total += i;
        BB  4: (false)   8:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        BB  5: (true)   11:  int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
        BB  6:          11:  int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
        BB  8: (false)  13:  if (total != 45 && v == 1)
        BB 11:          16:    printf ("Success\n");
        BB 12:          17:  return 0;

the first column (BB) is the sequence of basic blocks (see -w). the middle column (true/false) is the decision for that line. the third column is the line number. the fourth column is the line itself. these lines must be run in this order to cover path 10. 🌈

• -d, --display-progress — display the progress on the standard output.
• -f, --function-summaries — output summaries for each function in addition to the file level summary.
• --include regex — include functions matching regex. this option makes gcov only report on functions that match the extended regular expression regex. this flag can be combined with --exclude. if a function matches both includes and excludes, the last include/exclude applies. by default gcov reports on all functions, but if a --include is used then only functions matching the include will be reported.
• --exclude regex — exclude functions matching regex. this option makes gcov not report on functions that match the extended regular expression regex. this flag can be combined with --include. if a function matches both includes and excludes, the last include/exclude applies. by default gcov reports on all functions, and if --exclude is used then functions matching it will be omitted.
• -h, --help — display help about using gcov (on the standard output), and exit without doing any further processing.
• -j, --json-format — output the gcov file in an easy-to-parse JSON intermediate format which does not require source code for generation. the JSON file is compressed with the gzip compression algorithm and the files have a .gcov.json.gz extension.

the structure of the JSON is the following:

        {
          "current_working_directory": "foo/bar",
          "data_file": "a.out",
          "format_version": "2",
          "gcc_version": "11.1.1 20210510"
          "files": ["$file"]
        }

the fields of the root element have the following semantics:

• current_working_directory: working directory where a compilation unit was compiled
• data_file: name of the data file (GCDA)
• format_version: semantic version of the format

changes in version 2:

• calls: information about function calls is added

• gcc_version: version of the GCC compiler

each file has the following form:

        {
          "file": "a.c",
          "functions": ["$function"],
          "lines": ["$line"]
        }

the fields of the file element have the following semantics:

• file_name: name of the source file

each function has the following form:

• blocks — how many blocks live in the function
• blocks_executed — how many of those blocks actually got executed
• demangled_name — the function's demangled name
• end_column — the column in the source file where the function ends
• end_line — the line in the source file where the function ends
• execution_count — how many times the function ran
• name — the name of the function
• start_column — the column in the source file where the function begins
• start_line — the line in the source file where the function begins

okay so line numbers and column numbers number from 1. and heads up: in the current implementation, start_line and start_column do not include any template parameters and the leading return type — but that's likely to be fixed in the future, so don't @ me 💅

Each line has the following form:

{
  "block_ids": ["$block_id"],
  "branches": ["$branch"],
  "calls": ["$call"],
  "count": 2,
  "conditions": ["$condition"],
  "line_number": 15,
  "unexecuted_block": false,
  "function_name": "foo",
}

Branches and calls are present only with -b option. Fields of the line element have following semantics:

• block_ids — IDs of basic blocks that belong to the line
• count — number of executions of the line
• line_number — line number
• unexecuted_block — flag whether the line contains an unexecuted block (not all statements on the line are executed)
• function_name — a name of a function this line belongs to (for a line with an inlined statements can be not set)

Each branch has the following form:

{
  "count": 11,
  "destination_block_id": 17,
  "fallthrough": true,
  "source_block_id": 13,
  "throw": false
}

Fields of the branch element have following semantics:

• count — number of executions of the branch
• fallthrough — true when the branch is a fall through branch
• throw — true when the branch is an exceptional branch
• isource_block_id — ID of the basic block where this branch happens
• destination_block_id — ID of the basic block this branch jumps to

Each call has the following form:

{
  "destination_block_id": 1,
  "returned": 11,
  "source_block_id": 13
}

Fields of the call element have following semantics:

• returned — number of times a function call returned (call count is equal to line::count)
• isource_block_id — ID of the basic block where this call happens
• destination_block_id — ID of the basic block this calls continues after return

Each condition has the following form:

{
  "count": 4,
  "covered": 2,
  "not_covered_false": [],
  "not_covered_true": [0, 1],
}

Fields of the condition element have following semantics:

• count — number of condition outcomes in this expression
• covered — number of covered condition outcomes in this expression
• not_covered_true — terms, by index, not seen as true in this expression
• not_covered_false — terms, by index, not seen as false in this expression

---

• -H, --human-readable — write counts in human readable format (like 24.6k). bestie those big numbers are getting unreadable 💖
• -k, --use-colors — use colors for lines of code that have zero coverage. We use red color for non-exceptional lines and cyan for exceptional. Same colors are used for basic blocks with -a option. 🌈
• -l, --long-file-names — create long file names for included source files. For example, if the header file x.h contains code, and was included in the file a.c, then running gcov on the file a.c will produce an output file called a.c##x.h.gcov instead of x.h.gcov. This can be useful if x.h is included in multiple source files and you want to see the individual contributions. If you use the -p option, both the including and included file names will be complete path names. ✨
• -m, --demangled-names — display demangled function names in output. The default is to show mangled function names.
• -M, --filter-on-demangled — make --include and --exclude match demangled names. This does only affects the matching and does not imply --demangled-names, but it can safely be combined with it.
• -n, --no-output — do not create the gcov output file.
• -o directory|file, --object-directory directory, --object-file file — specify either the directory containing the gcov data files, or the object path name. The .gcno, and .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.
• -p, --preserve-paths — preserve complete path information in the names of generated .gcov files. Without this option, just the filename component is used. With this option, all directories are used, with / characters translated to # characters, . directory components removed and unremoveable .. components renamed to ^. This is useful if sourcefiles are in several different directories. 🦋
• -q, --use-hotness-colors — emit perf-like colored output for hot lines. Legend of the color scale is printed at the very beginning of the output file. 🔥
• -r, --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.
• -s directory, --source-prefix 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.
• -t, --stdout — output to standard output instead of output files.
• -u, --unconditional-branches — when branch probabilities are given, include those of unconditional branches. Unconditional branches are normally not interesting.
• -v, --version — display the gcov version number (on the standard output), and exit without doing any further processing.
• -w, --verbose — print verbose informations related to basic blocks and arcs.
• -x, --hash-filenames — when using --preserve-paths, gcov uses the full pathname of the source files to create an output filename. This can lead to long filenames that can overflow filesystem limits. This option creates names of the form source-file##md5.gcov, where the source-file component is the final filename part and the md5 component is calculated from the full mangled name that would have been used otherwise. The option is an alternative to the --preserve-paths on systems which have a filesystem limit.

---

okay so THE big vibe check: 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. gcov produces files called mangledname.gcov in the current directory. These contain the coverage information of the source file they correspond to. One .gcov file is produced for each source (or header) file containing code, which was compiled to produce the data files. The mangledname part of the output file name is usually simply the source file name, but can be something more complicated if the -l or -p options are given. Refer to those options for details. 💅

If you invoke 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 .gcov files contain the : separated fields along with program source code. The format is

<execution_count>:<line_number>:<source line text>

Additional block information may succeed each line, when requested by command line option. The execution_count is - for lines containing no code. Unexecuted lines are marked ##### or =====, depending on whether they are reachable by non-exceptional paths or only exceptional paths such as C++ exception handlers, respectively. Given the -a option, unexecuted blocks are marked $$$$$ or %%%%%, depending on whether a basic block is reachable via non-exceptional or exceptional paths. Executed basic blocks having a statement with zero execution_count end with * character and are colored with magenta color with the -k option. This functionality is not supported in Ada. 😭

Note that GCC can completely remove the bodies of functions that are not needed -- for instance if they are inlined everywhere. Such functions are marked with -, which can be confusing. Use the -fkeep-inline-functions and -fkeep-static-functions options to retain these functions and allow gcov to properly show their execution_count. 🫶

Some lines of information at the start have line_number of zero. These preamble lines are of the form

-:0:<tag>:<value>

The ordering and number of these preamble lines will be augmented as gcov development progresses --- do not rely on them remaining unchanged. Use tag to locate a particular preamble line. 🙈

The additional block information is of the form

<tag> <information>

The 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 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. ⭐

🦋 USING GCOV WITH GCC 🦋

okay bestie, listen up, because this is the part where it all clicks 💅

When using gcov, you must first compile your program with a special GCC option --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 -fprofile-arcs, an accompanying .gcda file will be placed in the object file directory.

Running 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 tmp.cpp, this is what you see when you use the basic gcov facility:

        $ g++ --coverage tmp.cpp -c
        $ g++ --coverage tmp.o
        $ a.out
        $ gcov tmp.cpp -m
        File 'tmp.cpp'
        Lines executed:92.86% of 14
        Creating 'tmp.cpp.gcov'

The file tmp.cpp.gcov contains output from gcov. Here is a sample:

                       -:    0:Source:tmp.cpp
                       -:    0:Working directory:/home/gcc/testcase
                       -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno
                       -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda
                       -:    0:Runs:1
                       -:    0:Programs:1
                       -:    1:#include <stdio.h>
                       -:    2:
                       -:    3:template<class T>
                       -:    4:class Foo
                       -:    5:{
                       -:    6:  public:
                      1*:    7:  Foo(): b (1000) {}
        ------------------
        Foo<char>::Foo():
            #####:    7:  Foo(): b (1000) {}
        ------------------
        Foo<int>::Foo():
                1:    7:  Foo(): b (1000) {}
        ------------------
                      2*:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
        ------------------
        Foo<char>::inc():
            #####:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
        ------------------
        Foo<int>::inc():
                2:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
        ------------------
                       -:    9:
                       -:   10:  private:
                       -:   11:  int b;
                       -:   12:};
                       -:   13:
                       -:   14:template class Foo<int>;
                       -:   15:template class Foo<char>;
                       -:   16:
                       -:   17:int
                       1:   18:main (void)
                       -:   19:{
                       -:   20:  int i, total;
                       1:   21:  Foo<int> counter;
                       -:   22:
                       1:   23:  counter.inc();
                       1:   24:  counter.inc();
                       1:   25:  total = 0;
                       -:   26:
                      11:   27:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
                      10:   28:    total += i;
                       -:   29:
                      1*:   30:  int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
                       -:   31:
                       1:   32:  if (total != 45)
                   #####:   33:    printf ("Failure\n");
                       -:   34:  else
                       1:   35:    printf ("Success\n");
                       1:   36:  return 0;
                       -:   37:}

Note that line 7 is shown in the report multiple times. First occurrence presents total number of execution of the line and the next two belong to instances of class Foo constructors. As you can also see, line 30 contains some unexecuted basic blocks and thus execution count has asterisk symbol. ⭐

---

✨ when u use -a ✨

When you use the -a option, you will get individual block counts, and the output looks like this:

                       -:    0:Source:tmp.cpp
                       -:    0:Working directory:/home/gcc/testcase
                       -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno
                       -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda
                       -:    0:Runs:1
                       -:    0:Programs:1
                       -:    1:#include <stdio.h>
                       -:    2:
                       -:    3:template<class T>
                       -:    4:class Foo
                       -:    5:{
                       -:    6:  public:
                      1*:    7:  Foo(): b (1000) {}
        ------------------
        Foo<char>::Foo():
            #####:    7:  Foo(): b (1000) {}
        ------------------
        Foo<int>::Foo():
                1:    7:  Foo(): b (1000) {}
        ------------------
                      2*:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
        ------------------
        Foo<char>::inc():
            #####:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
        ------------------
        Foo<int>::inc():
                2:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
        ------------------
                       -:    9:
                       -:   10:  private:
                       -:   11:  int b;
                       -:   12:};
                       -:   13:
                       -:   14:template class Foo<int>;
                       -:   15:template class Foo<char>;
                       -:   16:
                       -:   17:int
                       1:   18:main (void)
                       -:   19:{
                       -:   20:  int i, total;
                       1:   21:  Foo<int> counter;
                       1:   21-block  0
                       -:   22:
                       1:   23:  counter.inc();
                       1:   23-block  0
                       1:   24:  counter.inc();
                       1:   24-block  0
                       1:   25:  total = 0;
                       -:   26:
                      11:   27:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
                       1:   27-block  0
                      11:   27-block  1
                      10:   28:    total += i;
                      10:   28-block  0
                       -:   29:
                      1*:   30:  int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
                       1:   30-block  0
                   %%%%%:   30-block  1
                       1:   30-block  2
                       -:   31:
                       1:   32:  if (total != 45)
                       1:   32-block  0
                   #####:   33:    printf ("Failure\n");
                   %%%%%:   33-block  0
                       -:   34:  else
                       1:   35:    printf ("Success\n");
                       1:   35-block  0
                       1:   36:  return 0;
                       1:   36-block  0
                       -:   37:}

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 -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 33 contains a basic block that was not executed. 😭

---

🌸 when u use -b 🌸

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

                       -:    0:Source:tmp.cpp
                       -:    0:Working directory:/home/gcc/testcase
                       -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno
                       -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda
                       -:    0:Runs:1
                       -:    0:Programs:1
                       -:    1:#include <stdio.h>
                       -:    2:
                       -:    3:template<class T>
                       -:    4:class Foo
                       -:    5:{
                       -:    6:  public:
                      1*:    7:  Foo(): b (1000) {}
        ------------------
        Foo<char>::Foo():
        function Foo<char>::Foo() called 0 returned 0% blocks executed 0%
            #####:    7:  Foo(): b (1000) {}
        ------------------
        Foo<int>::Foo():
        function Foo<int>::Foo() called 1 returned 100% blocks executed 100%
                1:    7:  Foo(): b (1000) {}
        ------------------
                      2*:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
        ------------------
        Foo<char>::inc():
        function Foo<char>::inc() called 0 returned 0% blocks executed 0%
            #####:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
        ------------------
        Foo<int>::inc():
        function Foo<int>::inc() called 2 returned 100% blocks executed 100%
                2:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
        ------------------
                       -:    9:
                       -:   10:  private:
                       -:   11:  int b;
                       -:   12:};
                       -:   13:
                       -:   14:template class Foo<int>;
                       -:   15:template class Foo<char>;
                       -:   16:
                       -:   17:int
        function main called 1 returned 100% blocks executed 81%
                       1:   18:main (void)
                       -:   19:{
                       -:   20:  int i, total;
                       1:   21:  Foo<int> counter;
        call    0 returned 100%
        branch  1 taken 100% (fallthrough)
        branch  2 taken 0% (throw)
                       -:   22:
                       1:   23:  counter.inc();
        call    0 returned 100%
        branch  1 taken 100% (fallthrough)
        branch  2 taken 0% (throw)
                       1:   24:  counter.inc();
        call    0 returned 100%
        branch  1 taken 100% (fallthrough)
        branch  2 taken 0% (throw)
                       1:   25:  total = 0;
                       -:   26:
                      11:   27:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        branch  0 taken 91% (fallthrough)
        branch  1 taken 9%
                      10:   28:    total += i;
                       -:   29:
                      1*:   30:  int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
        branch  0 taken 0% (fallthrough)
        branch  1 taken 100%
                       -:   31:
                       1:   32:  if (total != 45)
        branch  0 taken 0% (fallthrough)
        branch  1 taken 100%
                   #####:   33:    printf ("Failure\n");
        call    0 never executed
        branch  1 never executed
        branch  2 never executed
                       -:   34:  else
                       1:   35:    printf ("Success\n");
        call    0 returned 100%
        branch  1 taken 100% (fallthrough)
        branch  2 taken 0% (throw)
                       1:   36:  return 0;
                       -:   37:}

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. 👑

---

okay so like, every basic block</p> gets its own little moment 💅 — right after the last line of that block, gcov prints a line spilling all the tea about the branch or call that ends it. and bestie, if one source line has multiple basic blocks ending on it, you get multiple branches and calls listed for that same line. in that case they each get a number 🔢. lowkey there's no simple way to map those branches and calls back to source constructs, but fr fr, in general the lowest-numbered branch or call lines up with the leftmost construct on that source line. iykyk.

---

for a branch 🦋 — if it ran at least once, you get a percentage: the number of times the branch was taken divided by the number of times the branch was executed. if it never ran? you get the message "never executed" and that's the vibe check failing 😭.

for a call ✨ — if it ran at least once, you get a percentage: the number of times the call returned divided by the number of times the call was executed. usually this is a cute lil 100%, but it can be less for functions that call "exit" or "longjmp" — because those lil guys may not return every single time they get called. periodt.

when you use the -g option, your output looks like this:

       $ gcov -t -m -g tmp
               -:    0:Source:tmp.cpp
               -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno
               -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda
               -:    0:Runs:1
               -:    1:#include <stdio.h>
               -:    2:
               -:    3:int
               1:    4:main (void)
               -:    5:{
               -:    6:  int i, total;
               1:    7:  total = 0;
               -:    8:
              11:    9:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
       condition outcomes covered 2/2
              10:   10:    total += i;
               -:   11:
              1*:   12:  int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
       condition outcomes covered 1/2
       condition  0 not covered (true)
               -:   13:
              1*:   14:  if (total != 45 && v == 1)
       condition outcomes covered 1/4
       condition  0 not covered (true)
       condition  1 not covered (true false)
           #####:   15:    printf ("Failure\n");
               -:   16:  else
               1:   17:    printf ("Success\n");
               1:   18:  return 0;
               -:   19:}

---

so for every condition 🌸, gcov prints the number of taken and total outcomes, and if there are uncovered outcomes it prints a line for each condition showing the uncovered outcome in parentheses 🙈. conditions get ID'd by their index — index 0 is the left-most condition, no cap. in "a || (b && c)", a is condition 0, b is condition 1, and c is condition 2. easy 💅.

an outcome counts as covered if it has an independent effect on the decision — this is also known as masking MC/DC (Modified Condition/Decision Coverage) 👑. in this example the decision evaluates to true and a is evaluated, but it's not covered. why? because a can't affect the decision independently — both a and b must change value for the decision to change. it's giving teamwork but make it a bug 😭.

       $ gcov -t -m -g tmp
               -:    0:Source:tmp.c
               -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno
               -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda
               -:    0:Runs:1
               -:    1:#include <stdio.h>
               -:    2:
               1:    3:int main()
               -:    4:{
               1:    5:  int a = 1;
               1:    6:  int b = 0;
               -:    7:
               1:    8:  if (a && b)
       condition outcomes covered 1/4
       condition  0 not covered (true false)
       condition  1 not covered (true)
           #####:    9:    printf ("Success!\n");
               -:   10:  else
               1:   11:    printf ("Failure!\n");
               -:   12:}

---

when you compile with --coverage -fpath-coverage and use the option -e, your output looks like this ✨:

       $ gcov -t -e tmp
               -:    0:Source:tmp.cpp
               -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno
               -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda
               -:    0:Runs:1
               -:    1:#include <stdio.h>
               -:    2:
       paths covered 4 of 15
               1:    3:int main ()
               -:    4:{
               -:    5:  int i, total;
               1:    6:  total = 0;
               -:    7:
              11:    8:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
              10:    9:    total += i;
               -:   10:
              1*:   11:  int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
               -:   12:
              1*:   13:  if (total != 45 && v == 1)
           #####:   14:    printf ("Failure\n");
               -:   15:  else
               1:   16:    printf ("Success\n");
               1:   17:  return 0;
               -:   18:}

this output is useful for figuring out roughly where coverage is missing and for testing how different inputs change the coverage 🧚. and the --prime-paths-source is a useful tool for understanding paths, bestie 🫶.

       $ gcov -t --prime-paths-source tmp
               -:    0:Source:tmp.cpp
               -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno
               -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda
               -:    0:Runs:1
               -:    1:#include <stdio.h>
               -:    2:
       paths covered 4 of 15
       path 1:
       BB  2:           3:int main ()
       BB  2:           6:  total = 0;
       BB  2:           8:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
       BB  4: (false)   8:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
       BB  5: (true)   11:  int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
       BB  6:          11:  int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
       BB  8: (true)   13:  if (total != 45 && v == 1)
       BB  9: (true)   13:  if (total != 45 && v == 1)
       BB 10:          14:    printf ("Failure\n");
       BB 12:          17:  return 0;

in this mode, gcov prints details on the missing paths 🔥. the first column lists the sequence of basic blocks (BB). the second column is the decision to take at that line if there is one. and the final columns are the line number and the line itself 📝. this is useful for understanding the paths — especially the ones that are hard to cover or even unreachable 😭. lines may be repeated, like the "for" loop, if the same line is part of multiple basic blocks. this mode is intended for humans and is good at understanding what code is exercised under testing or for given inputs 💖. it's also quite verbose, so for focusing on specific functions it can be combined with the filters --include and --exclude. slay.

a denser output is available with --prime-paths-lines, which looks like this:

               -:    0:Source:tmp.cpp
               -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno
               -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda
               -:    0:Runs:1
               -:    1:#include <stdio.h>
               -:    2:
       paths covered 4 of 15
       path  1 not covered: lines 8 8(false) 11(true) 11 13(true) 13(true) 14 17
       path  2 not covered: lines 8 8(false) 11(true) 11 13(true) 13(false) 16 17
       path  3 not covered: lines 8 8(false) 11(true) 11 13(false) 16 17
       path  4 not covered: lines 8 8(false) 11(false) 11 13(true) 13(true) 14 17
       path  5 not covered: lines 8 8(false) 11(false) 11 13(true) 13(false) 16 17
       path  6 not covered: lines 8 8(false) 11(false) 11 13(false) 16 17
       path  8 not covered: lines 9 8(false) 11(true) 11 13(true) 13(true) 14 17
       path  9 not covered: lines 9 8(false) 11(true) 11 13(true) 13(false) 16 17
       path 10 not covered: lines 9 8(false) 11(true) 11 13(false) 16 17
       path 11 not covered: lines 9 8(false) 11(false) 11 13(true) 13(true) 14 17
       path 12 not covered: lines 9 8(false) 11(false) 11 13(true) 13(false) 16 17
               1:    3:int main ()
               -:    4:{

in this mode, every missing path is expanded using the lines and decisions just like --prime-paths-source, but printed on a single line 💅. it provides a good overview over the paths and is great for tracking how different tests and inputs exercise the code 🦋.

---

the execution counts are cumulative 👑. if the example program were executed again without removing the .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, bestie. 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 📈. it's giving data hoarder but make it ✨science✨.

the data in the .gcda files is saved immediately before the program exits ⏰. for each source file compiled with -fprofile-arcs, the profiling code first tries to read in an existing .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. no cap.

---

you can report on a subset of functions by using --include and --exclude 🌸. this is super useful when combined with --stdout — like when you're trying to understand behavior and coverage for one particular function by running a test, looking at gcov output, testing another input, and running gcov again. the whole cycle 🔁.

       $ gcov -m --stdout --include inc tmp
               -:    0:Source:tmp.cpp
               -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno
               -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda
               -:    0:Runs:1
              2*:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
       ------------------
       Foo<char>::inc():
           #####:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
       ------------------
       Foo<int>::inc():
               2:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
       ------------------

gcov matches on mangled names by default, which you can control with the -M flag 🎀. and note: matching and reporting are independent, so you can match on mangled names while printing demangled names, and vice versa. versatile queen 💅. to report on the "int" instantiation of "Foo" matching on mangled and demangled names:

       $ gcov -t -m -M tmp --include 'Foo<int>'
               -:    0:Source:tmp.cpp
               -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno
               -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda
               -:    0:Runs:1
               1:    7:  Foo(): b (1000) {}
               2:    8:  void inc () { b++; }

       $ gcov -t -m tmp --include 'FooIi'
               -:    0:Source:tmp.cpp
               -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno
               -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda
               -:    0:Runs:1
               1:    7:  Foo(): b (1000) {}
               2:    8:  void inc () { b++; }

okay so the args you hand to --include and --exclude are extended regular expressions — literally the same flavor as grep -E 🧠 — so the pattern "in.?" matches both "inc" and "main". And if you're using -M, then all the "int" instantiations of "Foo" would match too. You can pass --include and --exclude as many times as you want, and if a name matches more than one filter, the last one to match wins. periodt.

So, say you wanna match "main" and the "int" instantiation of "inc", but leave out the "Foo" constructor — it's giving:

$ gcov -t -m -M --include in --exclude Foo --include '<int>::inc' tmp
        -:    0:Source:tmp.cpp
        -:    0:Graph:tmp.gcno
        -:    0:Data:tmp.gcda
        -:    0:Runs:1
        2:    8:  void inc () { b++; }
        1:   18:main (void)
        -:   19:{
        -:   20:  int i, total;
        1:   21:  Foo<int> counter;
        -:   22:
        1:   23:  counter.inc();
        1:   24:  counter.inc();
        1:   25:  total = 0;
        -:   26:
       11:   27:  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
       10:   28:    total += i;
        -:   29:
       1*:   30:  int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
        -:   31:
        1:   32:  if (total != 45)
    #####:   33:    printf ("Failure\n");
        -:   34:  else
        1:   35:    printf ("Success\n");
        1:   36:  return 0;

---

🛠️ Using gcov with GCC Optimization

So you wanna use gcov to help optimize your code? iconic. But bestie, first you must compile your program with that special GCC option --coverage. Aside from that, you can use literally any other GCC options you like ✨ — but if you want to prove that every single line in your program was executed, do not compile with optimization at the same time. No cap.

Why? On some machines the optimizer can eliminate simple code lines by squishing them together with other lines 😭. Like, code that looks like this:

if (a != b)
  c = 1;
else
  c = 0;

can get compiled into one single instruction on some machines. And in that case there is genuinely no way for gcov to calculate separate execution counts for each line, because there is no separate code for each line. So if you compiled with optimization, the gcov output ends up looking like this:

              100:   12:if (a != b)
              100:   13:  c = 1;
              100:   14:else
              100:   15:  c = 0;

Which is telling you that this whole block of code — combined by optimization — executed 100 times. In one sense that result is correct, because there was only one instruction representing all four of these lines 💀. But the output does not tell you how many times the result was 0 and how many times the result was 1. So like… mood, but not useful.

Inlineable functions can also create unexpected line counts 🙈. Line counts are shown for the source code of the inlineable function, but what actually gets shown depends on where the function is inlined — or if it isn't inlined at all.

If the function is not inlined, the compiler has to emit an out of line copy of the function, in any object file that needs it. And if fileA.o and fileB.o both contain out of line bodies of a particular inlineable function, they'll also both contain coverage counts for that function. When fileA.o and fileB.o get linked together, the linker will — on many systems — pick 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. And 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 🫠.

Long-running applications can use the "__gcov_reset" and "__gcov_dump" facilities to restrict profile collection to the program region of interest 👑. Calling "__gcov_reset(void)" will clear all run-time profile counters to zero, and calling "__gcov_dump(void)" will cause the profile information collected at that point to be dumped to .gcda output files. Instrumented applications use a static destructor with priority 99 to invoke the "__gcov_dump" function. So "__gcov_dump" gets executed after all user defined static destructors, as well as handlers registered with "atexit".

If an executable loads a dynamic shared object via dlopen functionality, -Wl,--dynamic-list-data is needed to dump all profile data.

The profiling run-time library reports various errors related to profile manipulation and profile saving 📋. Errors are printed into standard error output, or into the GCOV_ERROR_FILE file if that environment variable is used. And in order to terminate immediately after an error occurs, set the GCOV_EXIT_AT_ERROR environment variable. That can help users find profile clashing which leads to a misleading profile. iykyk 💅

---

👀 SEE ALSO

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

---

📜 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1996-2026 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.

---

and that's a wrap bestie 🎀 this whole thing is from gcc-16.2.1, dated 2026-08-19, and it lives at GCOV(1) — go forth and cover your code, you absolute legend 🦋💖