Typical command line examples

 

The following examples demonstrate a few different scenarios in which you might want to use Coverage Validator via the command line.

 

To run 32 bit coverage validator run C:\Program Files (x86)\Software Verify\Coverage Validator x86\coverageValidator.exe

 

To run 64 bit coverage validator run C:\Program Files (x86)\Software Verify\Coverage Validator x64\coverageValidator_x64.exe

 

 

Example 1 - running a session

 

This example starts the application, showing no progress dialog whilst attaching to the process.

 

On completion, the resulting session is saved, and some tabs are refreshed.

 

The last tab refreshed is displayed, resulting in the Functions tab being the current tab.

 

coverageValidator_x64.exe -program "c:\myProgram.exe" -saveSession "c:\myResults\session1.cvm_x64" -displayUI -refreshResults -refreshCoverage -refreshFunctions -refreshFilesAndLines

 

A brief explanation of each argument:

 

 

 

Example 2 - running a session and exiting when the session is complete

 

This example starts the application, showing no progress dialog whilst attaching to the process.

 

On completion, the resulting session is saved, and Coverage Validator exits.

 

coverageValidator_x64.exe -program "c:\myProgram.exe" -saveSession "c:\myResults\session2.cvm_x64" -hideUI

 

A brief explanation of each argument:

 

 

 

Example 3 - running a session (.Net Core, Self Contained)

 

This example starts a .Net Core application, showing no progress dialog whilst attaching to the process.

 

On completion, the resulting session is saved, and some tabs are refreshed.

 

The last tab refreshed is displayed, resulting in the Functions tab being the current tab.

 

coverageValidator_x64.exe -program "c:\myDotNetCoreApp.exe" -dotNetCoreLaunchType SelfContained -saveSession "c:\myResults\session3.cvm_x64" -displayUI -refreshCoverage -refreshFunctions -refreshResults

 

A brief explanation of each argument:

 

 

 

Example 4 - running a session (.Net Core, Framework Dependent)

 

This example starts a .Net Core application, showing no progress dialog whilst attaching to the process.

 

On completion, the resulting session is saved, and some tabs are refreshed.

 

The last tab refreshed is displayed, resulting in the Functions tab being the current tab.

 

coverageValidator_x64.exe -program "c:\dotNetCoreApp.dll" -dotNetCoreLaunchType FrameworkDependent -saveSession "c:\myResults\session4.cvm_x64" -displayUI -refreshCoverage -refreshFunctions -refreshResults

 

A brief explanation of each argument:

 

 

 

Example 5 - running and merging a session

 

Add the following to the first example to load a previous session, and after the application has finished and this session saved, merge in the loaded session, and save the combined results:

 

coverageValidator_x64.exe -program "c:\myProgram.exe" -directory "c:\testarea" -loadSession "c:\myResults\session1.cvm_x64" -mergeSessions -saveMergeResult "c:\myResults\session5.cvm_x64"

 

 

 

Example 6 - merging previous results

 

This example loads two previously saved sessions and merges them without any user intervention, saving the merged session as a new session.

 

coverageValidator_x64.exe -hideUI -loadSession "c:\myResults\session1.cvm" -loadSession2 "c:\myResults\session2.cvm_x64" -mergeSessions -saveMergeResult "c:\myResults\session1+2.cvm_x64"

 

 

 

 

Example 7 - merging multiple previous results

 

This example loads two previously saved sessions and merges them without any user intervention, saving the merged session as a new session.

 

coverageValidator_x64.exe -hideUI -mergeSessions -mergeMultiple e:\cv_merge_multiple.txt -saveMergeResult e:\cv_merge_result.cvm_x64

 

 

 

 

Example 8 - merging runs into a central session

 

This example profiles two different applications (each of which is a unit test) merging them into a central session.

 

It demonstrates the use of -mergeClearNone, -mergeUsingSymbol and relative file specifications (rather than explicit full path file specifications).

 

Because the two applications are different we must prevent the merge from resetting its data when the application changes and when the application timestamp changes. We do this with the -mergeClearNone option.

 

There is also a very real chance that symbols from each application will use conflicting addresses, thus we must merge using symbol names, not addresses. We do this using the -mergeUsingSymbol option.

 

First unit test:

 

coverageValidator_x64.exe -resetSettings -showErrorsWithMessageBox -mergeUsingSymbol -mergeClearNone -numSessions 2 -hideUI -program .\bin\tstdate.exe -mergeToCentralSession:On -centralFileName .\temp\cvmerge.cvm_x64 -saveSession .\temp\libdate.cvm_x64 -sourceFileFilterHookFile .\cv\libdate.srchook -dllHookFile .\cv\libdate.dllHook

 

Second unit test, with identical arguments in grey:

 

coverageValidator_x64.exe -resetSettings -showErrorsWithMessageBox -mergeUsingSymbol -mergeClearNone -numSessions 2 -hideUI -program .\bin\tsttime.exe -mergeToCentralSession:On -centralFileName .\temp\cvmerge.cvm -saveSession .\temp\libtime.cvm_x64 -sourceFileFilterHookFile .\cv\libdate.srchook -dllHookFile .\cv\libdate.dllHook

 

Each command line is essentially the same, but runs a different application and saves a different session.

 

You can add more unit tests by running more command lines.

 

Because of the repeatable nature of the command line this is easily scriptable.

 

A brief explanation of the arguments not already covered above:

 

 

 

Example 9 - using command files

 

Functionally this example does the same as the previous example, but uses command files to achieve the same result

 

The following code would be placed in a .bat or .cmd file:

 

@echo off
del /Q .\temp\*.*
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Software Verify\Coverage Validator\coverageValidator.exe" -commandFile .\cv\libtime.cf
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Software Verify\Coverage Validator\coverageValidator.exe" -commandFile .\cv\libdate.cf
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Software Verify\Coverage Validator\coverageValidator.exe" -commandFile .\cv\export.cf

 

The code empties the local results 'temp' directory and then runs two tests as above, before finally running CoverageValidator once more to create some HTML reports.

 

The batch file assumes it will be run from the directory that has the bin, cv, and temp sub-directories with the appropriate data in them.

 

The contents of the .cf files in this example would be as follows:

 

libdate.cf

 
-resetSettings
-showErrorsWithMessageBox
-mergeUsingSymbol
-mergeClearNone
-numSessions 2
-hideUI
-program .\bin\tstdate.exe
-dllHookFile .\cv\libdate.dllhook
-sourceFileFilterHookFile .\cv\libdate.srchook
-mergeToCentralSession:On
-centralFileName .\temp\cvmerge.cvm_x64
-saveSession .\temp\libdate.cvm_x64

 

libtime.cf

 

-resetSettings
-showErrorsWithMessageBox
-mergeUsingSymbol
-mergeClearNone
-numSessions 2
-hideUI
-program .\bin\tsttime.exe
-dllHookFile .\cv\libtime.dllhook
-sourceFileFilterHookFile .\cv\libtime.srchook
-mergeToCentralSession:On
-centralFileName .\temp\cvmerge.cvm_x64
-saveSession .\temp\libtime.cvm_x64

 

export.cf

 

-resetSettings
-loadSession .\temp\cvmerge.cvm_x64
-hideUI
-exportAsHTML .\temp\cvreport.html
-exportDescription "Time and date tests"
-exportDetailedReport:On
-exportDoColourCode:On
-exportSourceCode:On
-exportType SummaryAndCoverage
-exportUnhooked:On
-exportUnvisitedFunctions:On
-exportUnvisitedLines:On
-exportVisitedFunctions:On
-exportVisitedLines:On
-showMergeWithReport none

 

 

Example 10 - monitoring a process that restarts itself

 

This example shows you how to collect code coverage data for a process that restarts itself. Because it restarts itself it will create multiple coverage sessions - to deal with this we use the central session to collect all the different coverage data into one session.

 

coverageValidator_x64.exe -waitName "E:\test\myProgram.exe" -hideUI -monitorAllRestarts -maxNumRestarts 3  -mergeUsingSymbol -mergeClearNone -mergeToCentralSession:On -centralFileName e:\cvmerge.cvm_x64