covdbg 1.5.1: counts lines as OpenCppCoverage does

2026-10-28

covdbg 1.5.1 is available. It closes the gaps that kept teams on OpenCppCoverage: the tests' exit code is passed on to CI, lines can be left out by pattern or marker comment, assembly is measured, and the program runs even when nothing in it is measured. Lines are now counted the way OpenCppCoverage counts them, so the numbers carry over when you switch.

In this release: Fail the CI step with your tests · Exclude lines · Assembly · Nothing measured · Line counts · More in 1.5.1 · Upgrading

Fail the CI step with your tests

covdbg exits 0 once it has measured a run and written the database, also when the tests failed. Pass --propagate-exit-code, or set COVDBG_PROPAGATE_EXIT_CODE=1, and covdbg exits with the program's exit code instead, a crash's status included:

covdbg --propagate-exit-code --config .covdbg.yaml --output tests.covdb tests.exe

The database is written first, so the steps after it can still convert and upload the coverage of a failing run with if: always(), and the job still fails. covdbg's own errors exit 1. Below the program's output, covdbg now says how the program exited.

See Exit Codes.

Exclude lines

exclude_lines in .covdbg.yaml leaves out the lines its regular expressions match, as OpenCppCoverage's --excluded_line_regex does. The marker comments of lcov and gcovr work without any configuration: LCOV_EXCL_LINE, LCOV_EXCL_START ... LCOV_EXCL_STOP, the same with GCOVR_ and GCOV_, LCOV_UNREACHABLE_* and GCOVR_EXCL_FUNCTION.

if (!handle) {
    abort(); // LCOV_EXCL_LINE
}

See Excluding Lines.

Assembly is measured

Code an assembler writes outside a procedure is measured like the rest: all of NASM's, such as the .asm files of a statically linked OpenSSL, and MASM's after a plain label. Each public label is a function in the report.

See Assembly Outside Procedures.

Tests run even when nothing is measured

When nothing passes the coverage filter, covdbg now runs the program unmeasured, as OpenCppCoverage does. It says why nothing was measured, writes an empty database and exits 2, or with the program's exit code under --propagate-exit-code. Before, the program did not run at all, so a filter mistake also hid your test results.

See Nothing Measured.

Lines counted as OpenCppCoverage counts them

A line counts as run when its first instruction runs, as OpenCppCoverage and a debugger stepping by line count it. A line after a call that throws is no longer reported covered, and MSVC's hidden-line markers are no longer reported as lines.
ONE_SHOT counts each line once. A line counts 1 when any of its blocks ran, so a line of a template instantiated for 300 types is no longer reported with 300 hits.
Folded functions are functions of their own. Each function the linker folds into one (/OPT:ICF) is reported by its own name and with the lines of its own source. This is why coverage databases move to schema 9. See Folded Functions.
Every line at one address is reported, such as a function's opening brace and its first statement in an optimized build.
Each line is judged by its own file. files: filters each line by the file it is in, not by the function it sits in.

Moving to 1.5.1

Install covdbg 1.5.1. In GitHub Actions, set version: '1.5.1' on liasoft/setup-covdbg, which now installs the ARM64 build on ARM64 runners such as windows-11-arm by itself. See Windows on ARM runners.
Record your coverage again. Coverage databases are now schema 9. covdbg 1.5.1 refuses databases written by 1.5.0 or earlier, and 1.5.0 refuses those of 1.5.1, so update covdbg wherever databases are merged or converted too. See Databases from Earlier Versions.
List the executable under modules:. With modules: include:, the program is measured only when a pattern selects it. A list of libraries alone, such as include: ["mylib.dll"], now measures the libraries without the program: add the executable's name to measure it too. See My executable is no longer measured.
Check rooted files: patterns. ** itself, or a pattern with a / that does not start with **/, no longer matches paths outside the config's directory, so include: ["**"] no longer selects the MSVC runtime and Windows SDK sources. See File Patterns.
Update .gitignore for crash dumps. An entry for crash_dump_*.dmp no longer matches the new names; crash_*.dmp does.
In CI, add --propagate-exit-code so a failing test run fails the step.

The full list of changes is in the changelog.

Try it with your project

Download covdbg and follow the quick-start guide. If you are moving from OpenCppCoverage and something does not carry over, email our support team.