What are some code coverage tools for Perl?

Question

Are there any good (and preferably free) code coverage tools out there for Perl?

score 28 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 03 '18 at 21:27

28

As usual, CPAN is your friend: Have a look at Devel::Cover

edited Oct 03 '18 at 21:27

arhak

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answered Oct 23 '08 at 15:05

Sherm Pendley

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1

Please don't link to a specific version of a module. Try http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Devel::Cover instead. – cjm Oct 23 '08 at 15:21
I still think the perldoc link is better in this case, since it shows you the documentation. But the place to debate the merits of these link methods is http://stackoverflow.com/questions/43758/how-to-link-to-cpan-modules-in-answers – cjm Oct 23 '08 at 19:44
In this particular case, I think linking to the distribution is more appropriate, because there are a huge number of modules within it, as well as a tutorial. – Sherm Pendley Oct 23 '08 at 20:45

score 26 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 03 '18 at 17:49

26

Yes, Devel::Cover is the way to go.

If you develop a module, and use Module::Build to manage the installation, you even have a testcover target:

 perl Build.PL
 ./Build testcover

That runs the whole test suite, and makes a combined coverage report in nice HTML, where you can browse through your modules and watch their coverage.

edited Oct 03 '18 at 17:49

arhak

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answered Oct 23 '08 at 15:20

moritz

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thanks, I am just a bit puzzled , 3 replies to the same question in one day, two of them almost identical – FantomX1 Mar 16 '21 at 09:55

score 12 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 16 '18 at 10:23

As noted, Devel::Cover is your friend, but you'll want to google for it, too. It's documentation is a bit sparse and if you change your environment radically, you'll need to reinstall it because it builds Devel::Cover::Inc with a bunch of information pulled from your environment at the time you install it. This has caused plenty of problems for us at work as we have a shared CPAN environment and if one developer installs Devel::Cover and a different developer tries to run it, strange (and incorrect) results are common.

If you use this module, also check out Devel::CoverX::Covered. This module will capture much of the information which Devel::Cover throws away. It's very handy.

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 25 '08 at 08:59

Moritz discusses how modules built with Module::Build can use Devel::Cover easily.

For modules using ExtUtils::MakeMaker, an extension module exists to invoke the same functionality. Adding the following code before the call to WriteMakefile():

eval "use ExtUtils::MakeMaker::Coverage";
if( !$@ ) {
    print "Adding testcover target\n";
}

... will allow one to run the command 'make testcover' and have Devel::Cover perform its magic.

What are some code coverage tools for Perl?

4 Answers4

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