Coverage.py
Coverage.py is a tool for measuring code coverage of Python programs. It monitors your program, noting which parts of the code have been executed, then analyzes the source to identify code that could have been executed but was not.
Coverage measurement is typically used to gauge the effectiveness of tests. It can show which parts of your code are being exercised by tests, and which are not.
The latest version is coverage.py 6.5.0, released September 29, 2022. It is supported on:
Python versions 3.7 through 3.11.0 rc2.
PyPy3 7.3.8.
For Enterprise
Available as part of the Tidelift Subscription.
Coverage and thousands of other packages are working with
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source you use. If you want the flexibility of open source and the confidence
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Quick start
Getting started is easy:
Install coverage.py:
$ pip install coverage
For more details, see Installation.
Use
coverage run
to run your test suite and gather data. However you normally run your test suite, you can run your test runner under coverage. If your test runner command starts with “python”, just replace the initial “python” with “coverage run”.Instructions for specific test runners:
pytest
If you usually use:
$ pytest arg1 arg2 arg3
then you can run your tests under coverage with:
$ coverage run -m pytest arg1 arg2 arg3
Many people choose to use the pytest-cov plugin, but for most purposes, it is unnecessary.
unittest
Change “python” to “coverage run”, so this:
$ python -m unittest discover
becomes:
$ coverage run -m unittest discover
To limit coverage measurement to code in the current directory, and also find files that weren’t executed at all, add the
--source=.
argument to your coverage command line.Use
coverage report
to report on the results:$ coverage report -m Name Stmts Miss Cover Missing ------------------------------------------------------- my_program.py 20 4 80% 33-35, 39 my_other_module.py 56 6 89% 17-23 ------------------------------------------------------- TOTAL 76 10 87%
For a nicer presentation, use
coverage html
to get annotated HTML listings detailing missed lines:$ coverage html
Then open htmlcov/index.html in your browser, to see a report like this.
Capabilities
Coverage.py can do a number of things:
By default it will measure line (statement) coverage.
It can also measure branch coverage.
It can tell you what tests ran which lines.
It can produce reports in a number of formats: text, HTML, XML, LCOV, and JSON.
For advanced uses, there’s an API, and the result data is available in a SQLite database.
Using coverage.py
There are a few different ways to use coverage.py. The simplest is the command line, which lets you run your program and see the results. If you need more control over how your project is measured, you can use the API.
Some test runners provide coverage integration to make it easy to use coverage.py while running tests. For example, pytest has the pytest-cov plugin.
You can fine-tune coverage.py’s view of your code by directing it to ignore parts that you know aren’t interesting. See Specifying source files and Excluding code from coverage.py for details.
Getting help
If the FAQ doesn’t answer your question, you can discuss coverage.py or get help using it on the Testing In Python mailing list.
Bug reports are gladly accepted at the GitHub issue tracker. GitHub also hosts the code repository.
Professional support for coverage.py is available as part of the Tidelift Subscription.
I can be reached in a number of ways. I’m happy to answer questions about using coverage.py.
More information
- Installation
- For enterprise
- Command line usage
- Configuration reference
- Specifying source files
- Excluding code from coverage.py
- Branch coverage measurement
- Measuring sub-processes
- Measurement contexts
- Coverage.py API
- How coverage.py works
- Plug-ins
- Contributing to coverage.py
- Things that cause trouble
- FAQ and other help
- Change history
- Sleepy Snake