# Rcov 0.2.0 - code coverage tool for Ruby

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 28, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826 "2006-02-28T17:32:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 18\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/1 "2006-02-28T17:32:02Z")

</div>

Source code, additional information, screenshots… available at

```
http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov

```

## Overview

rcov is a tool for simple code coverage analysis in Ruby. It improves on  
the better known coverage[1] in a number of ways:

- 20-300 times faster: typically, the program being inspect runs only ~3  
times slower than without rcov (i.e. not 200 times slower as with  
some other tools)
- more convenient interface
- prettier output (since 0.2.0)
- more accurate coverage information through code linkage inference  
using  
simple heuristics
- additional features like bogo-profile mode, colorblind-friendliness…

Code coverage shouldn’t be abused (in few words, C0 coverage guarantees  
nothing) but it’s still useful for testing: it will at least tell you  
when  
your tests need more work, and most importantly where.

## What’s new in 0.2.0

A change summary is available at  
[eigenclass.org](http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov+0.2.0)

Visible changes since 0.1.0:

- improved HTML output (cleaner and more readable) — using xx under  
the hood
- textual output: execution counts or code decorated with ANSI sequences
- more convenient interface: run several scripts/tests in one go,  
argument  
propagation…

## Downloading

The last version is available at  
[eigenclass.org](http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov)

## How do I use it? What does it look like?

Just use rcov to run your program (instead of ruby), and a number of  
XHTML  
files with the code coverage information will be generated, e.g.

rcov test/\*.rb

will execute all the .rb files under test/ and generate the code  
coverage report  
under coverage/. rcov can also operate in “bogo-profiling mode”  
and output the relevant information in alternative formats (for the time  
being, plain text with execution count annotations and colored text).  
Use  
rcov -h  
for more information.

## Sample output

See [eigenclass.org](http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov) (once again) for screenshots.  
The (undecorated) textual output with execution count information looks  
like this:

# $ rcov --no-html -t b.rb

# ./b.rb

```
                                                                   | 

```

2  
a, b, c = (1…3).to\_a |  
2  
10.times do |  
1  
a += 1 |  
10  
20.times do |i| |  
10  
b += i |  
200  
b.times do |  
200  
c += (j = (b-a).abs) \> 0 ? j : 0 |  
738800  
end |  
0  
end |  
0  
end |  
0

## License

rcov is released under the terms of Ruby’s license.  
rcov includes xx 0.1.0, which is subject to the following conditions:

ePark Labs Public License version 1  
Copyright (c) 2005, ePark Labs, Inc. and contributors  
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without  
modification,  
are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright  
notice, this  
list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright  
notice,  
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the  
documentation  
and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. Neither the name of ePark Labs nor the names of its contributors  
may be  
used to endorse or promote products derived from this software  
without  
specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS  
IS” AND  
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE  
IMPLIED  
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE  
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE  
LIABLE FOR  
ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL  
DAMAGES  
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR  
SERVICES;  
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED  
AND ON  
ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT  
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF  
THIS  
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

[1] [Best Open Source Mac Software Development Software 2023](http://freshmeat.net/projects/rubycoverage)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/2 "2006-03-01T02:43:04Z")

</div>

Thanks Mauricio, this looks great and arrives just at the right momen  
when the students in my testing course goes into structural testing of  
their programs. I’ll point them to this!

Keep up the good work!

Thanks,

Robert F.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 2:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/3 "2006-03-01T02:47:11Z")

</div>

On 2/28/06, Mauricio F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Source code, additional information, screenshots… available at
> 
> ```
> http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov
> 
> ```

[snip]

very nice 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/4 "2006-03-01T03:20:03Z")

</div>

many thanks for rcov, batsman!!  
i was just trying it out. what a great tool. i will be using it heavily  
for  
sure!  
– henon

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 2:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/5 "2006-03-01T02:56:30Z")

</div>

Hi,

Mauricio F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:  
Source code, additional information, screenshots… available at

[http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov](http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov)

On Windows XP (HOME SP2) using MSVC ++ 6.0 and latest one-click  
installer:

C:\extract\_ruby\rcov\>ruby setup.rb  
—\> bin  
\<— bin  
—\> ext  
—\> ext/rcovrt  
C:/ruby/bin/ruby.exe C:/extract/\_ruby/rcov/ext/rcovrt/extconf.rb  
creating Makefile  
\<— ext/rcovrt  
\<— ext  
—\> bin  
updating shebang: rcov  
\<— bin  
—\> ext  
—\> ext/rcovrt  
nmake  
Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility Version 6.00.8168.0  
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1988-1998. All rights reserved.  
cl -nologo -MD -Zi -O2b2xg- -G6 -I.  
-IC:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/i386-mswin32 -IC:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/i386-mswin32  
-IC:/extract/\_ruby/rcov/ext/rcovrt -I. -I./… -I./…/missing -c  
-Tcrcov.c  
rcov.c  
rcov.c(21) : error C2146: syntax error : missing ‘)’ before identifier  
‘event’  
rcov.c(21) : error C2061: syntax error : identifier ‘event’  
rcov.c(21) : error C2059: syntax error : ‘;’  
rcov.c(21) : error C2059: syntax error : ‘,’  
rcov.c(22) : error C2059: syntax error : ‘)’  
rcov.c(70) : error C2065: ‘coverage\_event\_hook’ : undeclared identifier  
rcov.c(71) : error C2065: ‘RUBY\_EVENT\_ALL’ : undeclared identifier  
rcov.c(71) : error C2065: ‘RUBY\_EVENT\_C\_CALL’ : undeclared identifier  
rcov.c(72) : error C2065: ‘RUBY\_EVENT\_C\_RETURN’ : undeclared identifier  
rcov.c(72) : error C2065: ‘RUBY\_EVENT\_CLASS’ : undeclared identifier  
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: ‘cl’ : return code ‘0x2’  
Stop.  
setup.rb:655:in `command': system("nmake") failed (RuntimeError) from setup.rb:664:in `make’  
from setup.rb:1258:in `setup_dir_ext' from setup.rb:1532:in ` **send** ’  
from setup.rb:1532:in `traverse' from setup.rb:1530:in `dive\_into’  
from setup.rb:1530:in `traverse' from setup.rb:1534:in `traverse’  
from setup.rb:1533:in `each' ... 7 levels... from setup.rb:996:in `exec\_setup’  
from setup.rb:813:in `invoke' from setup.rb:773:in `invoke’  
from setup.rb:1578  
C:\extract\_ruby\rcov\>

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 6:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/6 "2006-03-01T06:17:07Z")

</div>

Hi ,

Shashank D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:  
Mauricio F. wrote:  
Source code, additional information, screenshots… available at

[http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov](http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov)

On Windows XP (HOME SP2) using MSVC ++ 6.0 and latest one-click  
installer:

I was wrong … this error only occurs if I use the older version of  
one-click installer.  
Works fine with the latest version.

However, now after successful compile and install, when I do this:

C:\atest\>rcov --no-html -t tst\_rcov.rb

C:\atest\>c:\ruby\bin\ruby.exe c:\ruby\bin\rcov.rb --no-html -t  
tst\_rcov.rb  
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/optparse.rb:1445:in `complete': invalid option: --no-html (OptionParser::Invalid from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/optparse.rb:1443:in `complete’  
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/optparse.rb:1278:in `order!' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/optparse.rb:1271:in `order!’  
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/optparse.rb:1351:in `permute!' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/optparse.rb:1378:in `parse!’  
from c:/ruby/bin/rcov.rb:627

C:\atest\>rcov -h

C:\atest\>c:\ruby\bin\ruby.exe c:\ruby\bin\rcov.rb -h  
rcov 0.1.0 2006-01-23  
Usage: rcov [options] \<script.rb\>  
Options:  
-o, --output PATH Destination directory.  
-I, --include PATHS Prepend PATHS to $: (colon  
separated list)  
-n, --no-color Create colorblind-safe output.  
-x, --exclude PATTERNS Don’t generate info for the files  
matching any  
of the given patterns  
(comma-separated regexp list)  
-p, --profile Generate bogo-profiling info.  
-r, --range Color scale range for profiling  
info (dB).  
-h, --help Show this message  
–version Show version  
C:\atest\>

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 6:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/7 "2006-03-01T06:43:49Z")

</div>

Hello,

It seems like you are using the old rcov eg. rcov 0.1 instead of 0.2

- Ville

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 6:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/8 "2006-03-01T06:28:06Z")

</div>

Hi,

It works … if I use the correct version !

Sorry for the noise …

And now, I have the Windows binary in case anybody wants to try it out  
with the _latest_ one click installer.

– Shashank

Shashank D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:  
Hi ,

Shashank D. wrote:  
Mauricio F. wrote:  
Source code, additional information, screenshots… available at

[http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov](http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov)

On Windows XP (HOME SP2) using MSVC ++ 6.0 and latest one-click  
installer:

I was wrong … this error only occurs if I use the older version of  
one-click installer.  
Works fine with the latest version.

However, now after successful compile and install, when I do this:

C:\atest\>rcov --no-html -t tst\_rcov.rb

C:\atest\>c:\ruby\bin\ruby.exe c:\ruby\bin\rcov.rb --no-html -t  
tst\_rcov.rb  
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/optparse.rb:1445:in `complete': invalid option: --no-html (OptionParser::Invalid from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/optparse.rb:1443:in `complete’  
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/optparse.rb:1278:in `order!' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/optparse.rb:1271:in `order!’  
from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/optparse.rb:1351:in `permute!' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/optparse.rb:1378:in `parse!’  
from c:/ruby/bin/rcov.rb:627

C:\atest\>rcov -h

C:\atest\>c:\ruby\bin\ruby.exe c:\ruby\bin\rcov.rb -h  
rcov 0.1.0 2006-01-23  
Usage: rcov [options]  
Options:  
-o, --output PATH Destination directory.  
-I, --include PATHS Prepend PATHS to $: (colon separated list)  
-n, --no-color Create colorblind-safe output.  
-x, --exclude PATTERNS Don’t generate info for the files matching any  
of the given patterns (comma-separated regexp list)  
-p, --profile Generate bogo-profiling info.  
-r, --range Color scale range for profiling info (dB).  
-h, --help Show this message  
–version Show version  
C:\atest\>

* * *

Relax. Yahoo! Mail virus scanning helps detect nasty viruses!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/9 "2006-03-02T23:23:43Z")

</div>

On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 02:27:37PM +0900, Shashank D. wrote:

> It works … if I use the correct version !

I think I might be to blame for that; I didn’t really think about  
win32 issues like whether the executable is associated to the Ruby  
interpreter. I’ll try to do better next time.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 1:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/10 "2006-03-14T01:27:27Z")

</div>

On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 01:31:11AM +0900, Mauricio F. wrote:

> Source code, additional information, screenshots… available at
> 
> ```
> http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov
> 
> ```

Fabulous!

I would like to get coverage for my test cases too. Could this be  
accomodated (without tweaking @ignore\_files in the source)?

many, many thanks for this tool,  
dave

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/11 "2006-03-14T21:00:21Z")

</div>

On Wed, Mar 15, 2006 at 02:23:04AM +0900, Mauricio F. wrote:

> It will be possible in the next release; in the meantime, could you use the  
> following patch?

I am doing, and it looks good.

Thank you!  
dave

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/12 "2006-03-14T18:23:39Z")

</div>

On Tue, Mar 14, 2006 at 09:27:14AM +0900, David H. wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 01:31:11AM +0900, Mauricio F. wrote:
> 
> > Source code, additional information, screenshots… available at
> > 
> > ```
> > http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?rcov
> > 
> > ```
> 
> Fabulous!
> 
> I would like to get coverage for my test cases too. Could this be  
> accomodated (without tweaking @ignore\_files in the source)?

It will be possible in the next release; in the meantime, could you use  
the  
following patch?

— old-rcov/bin/rcov 2006-03-14 18:12:47.000000000 +0100  
+++ new-rcov/bin/rcov 2006-03-14 09:53:07.000000000 +0100  
@@ -790,6 +790,11 @@  
regexps = list.split(/,/).map{|x| Regexp.new x}  
options.skip += regexps  
end

- opts.on("–exclude-only PATTERNS",
- 

```
       "Skip info generation only for the files matching the",

```

- 

```
       "given patterns (i.e. discard the default regexp list).") 

```

do |list|

- 

```
           options.skip = list.split(/,/).map{|x| Regexp.new(x) }

```

- 

```
       end

```

opts.on("-p", “–profile”, “Generate bogo-profiling info.”) do  
options.profiling = true  
options.destdir ||= “profiling”

After applying: (note that in rcov 0.2.0 -n == --no-color is ignored in  
-T  
rich-text mode, so you’ll get ANSI-decorated output instead of the  
following)

$ rcov --exclude-only lib/ruby --no-html -n -T tc\_foo.rb  
Loaded suite tc\_foo  
Started  
6  
.  
Finished in 0.009056 seconds.

# 1 tests, 1 assertions, 0 failures, 0 errors

# ./tc\_foo.rb

require ‘test/unit’  
require ‘foo’

class TC\_Foo \< Test::Unit::TestCase  
def setup; @foo = Foo.new end

```
 def test_foo
   assert_equal(8, @foo.foo(2, 4))
 end

```

# end

# ./foo.rb

class Foo  
def foo(a,b)  
if b \> 3  
puts a + b

## else

## puts a - b

## end

```
   a * b
 end

```

end

class Bar  
def bar

## 1

## end

## end

##

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 12:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/13 "2006-03-17T00:12:01Z")

</div>

On Fri, Mar 17, 2006 at 06:30:14AM +0900, Patrick H. wrote:

> Just want to join the chorus of thank you. This is perfect. I found a  
> blog entry ([asplake: Revert that Rakefile!](http://asplake.blogspot.com/2006/01/revert-that-rakefile.html))  
> and worked it over a little into the file below which I put in  
> lib/tasks/rcov.rake in a rails project. It works great.  
> …  
> [rcov.rake]

Thank you! May I distribute it with rcov (under Ruby’s license)? It  
seems many people will want to use it that way…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 12:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/14 "2006-03-17T00:30:22Z")

</div>

On 3/16/06, Mauricio F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 17, 2006 at 06:30:14AM +0900, Patrick H. wrote:
> 
> > Just want to join the chorus of thank you. This is perfect. I found a  
> > blog entry ([asplake: Revert that Rakefile!](http://asplake.blogspot.com/2006/01/revert-that-rakefile.html))  
> > and worked it over a little into the file below which I put in  
> > lib/tasks/rcov.rake in a rails project. It works great.  
> > …  
> > [rcov.rake]
> 
> Thank you! May I distribute it with rcov (under Ruby’s license)? It  
> seems many people will want to use it that way…

Please do! I’ve got a much uglier/less comprehensive set of Rake  
tasks that I use, I’d love to have a cleaner version. (My tasks build  
the standard html output for files in my repository or create the ascii  
‘poor mans profiling’.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 3:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/15 "2006-03-17T15:46:56Z")

</div>

“Patrick H.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) writes:

> task :rcov do  
> rm\_rf RCOV\_OUT  
> sh “#{RCOV} test/unit/_.rb test/functional/_.rb”  
> end

> ```
> task :units do
> sh "#{RCOV} test/unit/*.rb"
> end
> 
> ```

> ```
> task :coverage_functional do
> sh "#{RCOV} test/functional/*.rb"
> end
> 
> ```

Wouldn’t it be better if you used rake’s “ruby” method instead of “sh”  
to call another Ruby script?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 10:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/16 "2006-03-16T22:31:11Z")

</div>

On 3/14/06, David H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > > accomodated (without tweaking @ignore\_files in the source)?  
> > > [http://david.holroyd.me.uk/](http://david.holroyd.me.uk/)

Just want to join the chorus of thank you. This is perfect. I found a  
blog entry  
([asplake: Revert that Rakefile!](http://asplake.blogspot.com/2006/01/revert-that-rakefile.html))  
and worked it over a little into the file below which I put in  
lib/tasks/rcov.rake in a rails project. It works great.

Thanks  
pth

require ‘rake/clean’

RBINDIR = Config::CONFIG[‘bindir’]  
RBIN = “#{RBINDIR}/rcov”  
if File.exists?(RBIN)

# output goes to subdirectories of this one

RCOV\_OUT = “coverage”

# “rake clobber” to remove output directory (along with other

generated stuff)  
CLOBBER.include(RCOV\_OUT)

# don’t report coverage on these files

RCOV\_EXCLUDE = %w(boot.rb environment.rb vendor/rails  
test/functional test/unit).join(‘,’)

# RCOV command, run as though from the commandline. Amend as

required or perhaps move to config/environment.rb?  
RCOV = “#{RBINDIR}/ruby #{RBIN} --exclude #{RCOV\_EXCLUDE} --output  
#{RCOV\_OUT}”

desc “generate a coverage report for unit and functional tests  
together in #{RCOV\_OUT}/index.html”  
task :rcov do  
rm\_rf RCOV\_OUT  
sh “#{RCOV} test/unit/_.rb test/functional/_.rb”  
end

namespace :rcov do  
desc “generate a unit test coverage report in  
#{RCOV\_OUT}/index.html”  
task :units do  
sh “#{RCOV} test/unit/\*.rb”  
end

```
desc "generate a functional test coverage report in 

```

#{RCOV\_OUT}/index.html"  
task :coverage\_functional do  
sh “#{RCOV} test/functional/\*.rb”  
end  
end

end

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 9:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/17 "2006-05-17T21:59:51Z")

</div>

On Sun, May 07, 2006 at 05:26:09AM +0900, Rusty Geldmacher wrote:

> Christian N. wrote:
> 
> > Wouldn’t it be better if you used rake’s “ruby” method instead of “sh”  
> > to call another Ruby script?
> 
> I think I’ve gone a step further by integrating Rcov using Rake’s  
> TestTask class. The full description is here:
> 
> [http://www.soapboxsoftware.org/articles/2006/05/06/another-rake-task-for-rcov](http://www.soapboxsoftware.org/articles/2006/05/06/another-rake-task-for-rcov)

I took your idea (looking into Rake::TestTask) to implement a  
Rcov::RcovTask  
for rake. It will be in rcov 0.4.0, due out soon.

Thank you!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@tulkas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tulkas)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2006, 10:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rcov-0-2-0-code-coverage-tool-for-ruby/74826/18 "2006-05-06T22:26:00Z")

</div>

Christian N. wrote:

> Wouldn’t it be better if you used rake’s “ruby” method instead of “sh”  
> to call another Ruby script?

I think I’ve gone a step further by integrating Rcov using Rake’s  
TestTask class. The full description is here:

[http://www.soapboxsoftware.org/articles/2006/05/06/another-rake-task-for-rcov](http://www.soapboxsoftware.org/articles/2006/05/06/another-rake-task-for-rcov)

Comments appreciated!

rusty