Command Line Monitor a Child Process

Coverage Validator can be controlled from the command line prompt.

This tutorial describes in detail how to get code coverage for a child process launched from a process.

Sometimes the process you want to collect code coverage for is not the process you are launching, but a process launched by that process.

Monitor the first child process

The command line is:

coverageValidator.exe -program "c:\test results\testbed.exe"
                      -programToMonitorEXE "<<Any>>"
                      -programToMonitorLaunchCount 1
                      -saveSession "c:\test results\testFirstChildProcess.cvm" 
                      -hideUI

The above command line can be broken into its constituent items:

• Specify the program to run. -program “c:\test results\testbed.exe”
• Specify the program to monitor. -programToMonitorEXE “<<Any>>”
• Specify that it should be the first program launched. -programToMonitorLaunchCount 1
• The resulting session is saved in c:\test results\testFirstChildProcess.cvm. -saveSession “c:\test results\testFirstChildProcess.cvm”
• Run Coverage Validator with the user interface hidden. -hideUI

This command line runs testbed.exe but monitors the first program that testbed.exe launches. When the monitored program closes the code coverage results are finalised then saved to the session c:\test results\testFirstChildProcess.cvm. Finally Coverage Validator is closed.

Monitor a specific child process

The command line is:

coverageValidator.exe -program "c:\test results\testbed.exe"
                      -programToMonitorEXE "c:\test results\testbed_helper.exe"
                      -programToMonitorLaunchCount 2
                      -saveSession "c:\test results\testbedHelper2.cvm" 
                      -hideUI

The above command line can be broken into its constituent items:

• Specify the program to run. -program “c:\test results\testbed.exe”
• Specify the program to monitor. -program “c:\test results\testbed_helper.exe”
• Specify that we are interested in the second time testbed_helper.exe is launched. -programToMonitorLaunchCount 2
• The resulting session is saved in c:\test results\testbedHelper2.cvm. -saveSession “c:\test results\testbedHelper2.cvm”
• Run Coverage Validator with the user interface hidden. -hideUI

This command line runs testbed.exe but monitors the second launch of testbed_helper.exe. When the testbed_helper.exe closes the code coverage results are finalised then saved to the session c:\test results\testbedHelper2.cvm. Finally Coverage Validator is closed.

Command Line Builder

If you find writing command line tiresome, and you’d like some help we have created a command line builder tool to make the process of creating command lines a lot easier.