coverlet.console 6.0.2

Coverlet as a Global Tool

To see a list of options, run:

coverlet --help

The current options are (output of coverlet --help):

Cross platform .NET Core code coverage tool 6.0.0.0

Usage: coverlet [arguments] [options]

Arguments:
  <ASSEMBLY|DIRECTORY>                  Path to the test assembly or application directory.

Options:
  -t|--target (REQUIRED)                Path to the test runner application.
  -a|--targetargs                       Arguments to be passed to the test runner.
  -o|--output                           Output of the generated coverage report
  -v|--verbosity                        Sets the verbosity level of the command. Allowed values are quiet, minimal, normal, detailed.
  -f|--format                           Format of the generated coverage report. [default: json]
  --threshold                           Exits with error if the coverage % is below value.
  --threshold-type                      Coverage type to apply the threshold to.
  --threshold-stat                      Coverage statistic used to enforce the threshold value. [default: Minimum]
  --exclude                             Filter expressions to exclude specific modules and types.
  --include                             Filter expressions to include only specific modules and types.
  --exclude-by-file                     Glob patterns specifying source files to exclude.
  --include-directory                   Include directories containing additional assemblies to be instrumented.
  --exclude-by-attribute                Attributes to exclude from code coverage.
  --include-test-assembly               Specifies whether to report code coverage of the test assembly.
  --single-hit                          Specifies whether to limit code coverage hit reporting to a single hit for each location
  --skipautoprops                       Neither track nor record auto-implemented properties.
  --merge-with                          Path to existing coverage result to merge.
  --use-source-link                     Specifies whether to use SourceLink URIs in place of file system paths.
  --does-not-return-attribute           Attributes that mark methods that do not return.
  --exclude-assemblies-without-sources  Specifies behaviour of heuristic to ignore assemblies with missing source documents.
  --source-mapping-file                 Specifies the path to a SourceRootsMappings file.
  --version                             Show version information
  -?, -h, --help                        Show help and usage information

NB. For [multiple value] options you can either specify values multiple times i.e.

--exclude-by-attribute 'Obsolete' --exclude-by-attribute 'GeneratedCode' --exclude-by-attribute 'CompilerGenerated'

or pass the multiple values as space separated sequence, i.e.

--exclude-by-attribute "Obsolete" "GeneratedCode" "CompilerGenerated"

For --merge-with check the sample.

Code Coverage

The coverlet tool is invoked by specifying the path to the assembly that contains the unit tests. You also need to specify the test runner and the arguments to pass to the test runner using the --target and --targetargs options respectively. The invocation of the test runner with the supplied arguments must not involve a recompilation of the unit test assembly or no coverage data will be generated.

The following example shows how to use the familiar dotnet test toolchain:

coverlet /path/to/test-assembly.dll --target "dotnet" --targetargs "test /path/to/test-project --no-build"

After the above command is run, a coverage.json file containing the results will be generated in the directory the coverlet command was run. A summary of the results will also be displayed in the terminal.

Note: The --no-build flag is specified so that the /path/to/test-assembly.dll isn't rebuilt

Code Coverage for integration tests and end-to-end tests

Sometimes, there are tests that doesn't use regular unit test frameworks like xunit. You may find yourself in a situation where your tests are driven by a custom executable/script, which when run, could do anything from making API calls to driving Selenium.

As an example, suppose you have a folder /integrationtest which contains said executable (lets call it runner.exe) and everything it needs to successfully execute. You can use our tool to startup the executable and gather live coverage:

coverlet "/integrationtest" --target "/application/runner.exe"

Coverlet will first instrument all .NET assemblies within the integrationtests folder, after which it will execute runner.exe. Finally, at shutdown of your runner.exe, it will generate the coverage report. You can use all parameters available to customize the report generation. Coverage results will be generated once runner.exe exits. You can use all parameters available to customize the report generation.

Note: Today, Coverlet relies on AppDomain.CurrentDomain.ProcessExit and AppDomain.CurrentDomain.DomainUnload to record hits to the filesystem, as a result, you need to ensure a graceful process shutdown. Forcefully, killing the process will result in an incomplete coverage report.

Coverage Output

Coverlet can generate coverage results in multiple formats, which is specified using the --format or -f options. For example, the following command emits coverage results in the opencover format instead of json:

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --format opencover

Supported Formats:

• json (default)
• lcov
• opencover
• cobertura
• teamcity

The --format option can be specified multiple times to output multiple formats in a single run:

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --format opencover --format lcov

By default, Coverlet will output the coverage results file(s) in the current working directory. The --output or -o options can be used to override this behaviour.

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --output "/custom/path/result.json"

The above command will write the results to the supplied path, if no file extension is specified it'll use the standard extension of the selected output format. To specify a directory instead, simply append a / to the end of the value.

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --output "/custom/directory/" -f json -f lcov

TeamCity Output

Coverlet can output basic code coverage statistics using TeamCity service messages.

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --output teamcity

The currently supported TeamCity statistics are:

TeamCity Statistic Key	Description
CodeCoverageL	Line-level code coverage
CodeCoverageB	Branch-level code coverage
CodeCoverageM	Method-level code coverage
CodeCoverageAbsLTotal	The total number of lines
CodeCoverageAbsLCovered	The number of covered lines
CodeCoverageAbsBTotal	The total number of branches
CodeCoverageAbsBCovered	The number of covered branches
CodeCoverageAbsMTotal	The total number of methods
CodeCoverageAbsMCovered	The number of covered methods

Merging Results

With Coverlet you can combine the output of multiple coverage runs into a single result.

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --merge-with "/path/to/result.json" --format opencover

The value given to --merge-with must be a path to Coverlet's own json result format.

Threshold

Coverlet allows you to specify a coverage threshold below which it returns a non-zero exit code. This allows you to enforce a minimum coverage percent on all changes to your project.

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --threshold 80

The above command will automatically fail the build if the line, branch or method coverage of any of the instrumented modules falls below 80%. You can specify what type of coverage to apply the threshold value to using the --threshold-type option. For example to apply the threshold check to only line coverage:

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --threshold 80 --threshold-type line

You can specify the --threshold-type option multiple times. Valid values include line, branch and method.

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --threshold 80 --threshold-type line --threshold-type method

By default, Coverlet will validate the threshold value against the coverage result of each module. The --threshold-stat option allows you to change this behaviour and can have any of the following values:

• Minimum (Default): Ensures the coverage result of each module isn't less than the threshold
• Total: Ensures the total combined coverage result of all modules isn't less than the threshold
• Average: Ensures the average coverage result of all modules isn't less than the threshold

The following command will compare the threshold value with the overall total coverage of all modules:

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --threshold 80 --threshold-type line --threshold-stat total

Excluding From Coverage

Attributes

You can ignore a method or an entire class from code coverage by creating and applying the ExcludeFromCodeCoverage attribute present in the System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis namespace.

You can also ignore additional attributes by using the ExcludeByAttribute property

• Can be specified multiple times
• Use attribute name, attribute full name or fully qualified name of the attribute type (Obsolete, ObsoleteAttribute, System.ObsoleteAttribute)

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --exclude-by-attribute 'Obsolete' --exclude-by-attribute 'GeneratedCode' --exclude-by-attribute 'CompilerGenerated'

Source Files

You can also ignore specific source files from code coverage using the --exclude-by-file option

• Can be specified multiple times
• Use file path or directory path with globbing (e.g dir1/*.cs)

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --exclude-by-file "**/dir1/class1.cs"

Filters

Coverlet gives the ability to have fine grained control over what gets excluded using "filter expressions".

Syntax: --exclude '[Assembly-Filter]Type-Filter'

Wildcards

• * ⇒ matches zero or more characters
• ? ⇒ the prefixed character is optional

Examples

• --exclude "[*]*" ⇒ Excludes all types in all assemblies (nothing is instrumented)
• --exclude "[coverlet.*]Coverlet.Core.Coverage" ⇒ Excludes the Coverage class in the Coverlet.Core namespace belonging to any assembly that matches coverlet.* (e.g coverlet.core)
• --exclude "[*]Coverlet.Core.Instrumentation.*" ⇒ Excludes all types belonging to Coverlet.Core.Instrumentation namespace in any assembly
• --exclude "[coverlet.*.tests?]*" ⇒ Excludes all types in any assembly starting with coverlet. and ending with .test or .tests (the ? makes the s optional)
• --exclude "[coverlet.*]*" --exclude "[*]Coverlet.Core*" ⇒ Excludes assemblies matching coverlet.* and excludes all types belonging to the Coverlet.Core namespace in any assembly

coverlet <ASSEMBLY> --target <TARGET> --targetargs <TARGETARGS> --exclude "[coverlet.*]Coverlet.Core.Coverage"

Coverlet goes a step in the other direction by also letting you explicitly set what can be included using the --include option.

Examples

• --include "[*]*" ⇒ Includes all types in all assemblies (everything is instrumented)
• --include "[coverlet.*]Coverlet.Core.Coverage" ⇒ Includes the Coverage class in the Coverlet.Core namespace belonging to any assembly that matches coverlet.* (e.g coverlet.core)
• --include "[coverlet.*.tests?]*" ⇒ Includes all types in any assembly starting with coverlet. and ending with .test or .tests (the ? makes the s optional)

Both --exclude and --include options can be used together but --exclude takes precedence. You can specify the --exclude and --include options multiple times to allow for multiple filter expressions.

You can also include coverage of the test assembly itself by specifying the --include-test-assembly flag.

SourceLink

Coverlet supports SourceLink custom debug information contained in PDBs. When you specify the --use-source-link flag, Coverlet will generate results that contain the URL to the source files in your source control instead of local file paths.

Path Mappings

Coverlet has the ability to map the paths contained inside the debug sources into a local path where the source is currently located using the option --source-mapping-file. This is useful if the source was built using a deterministic build which sets the path to /_/ or if it was built on a different host where the source is located in a different path.

The value for --source-mapping-file should be a file with each line being in the format |path to map to=path in debug symbol. For example to map the local checkout of a project C:\git\coverlet to project that was built with <Deterministic>true</Deterministic> which sets the sources to /_/* the following line must be in the mapping file.

|C:\git\coverlet\=/_/

During coverage collection, Coverlet will translate any path that starts with /_/ to C:\git\coverlet\ allowing the collector to find the source file.

Exit Codes

Coverlet outputs specific exit codes to better support build automation systems for determining the kind of failure so the appropriate action can be taken.

0 - Success.
1 - If any test fails.
2 - Coverage percentage is below threshold.
3 - Test fails and also coverage percentage is below threshold.
101 - General exception occurred during coverlet process.
102 - Missing options or invalid arguments for coverlet process.