kcov ☆

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Description:
Code coverage tester for compiled programs, Python, and shell scripts

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Developer tools

Tags: coverage testing c-cpp python bash devtools

Install: brew install kcov

About:
Kcov is a code coverage tool that works with compiled binaries, Python scripts, and shell scripts. It instruments binaries without requiring recompilation by using the ptrace system call to monitor execution. Its main value is providing unified HTML and JSON coverage reports across multiple programming languages.

Key Features:

Supports C/C++, Python, and Bash coverage analysis
No source code modification required for compiled binaries
Generates detailed HTML reports with source browsing
Produces machine-readable JSON coverage data
Performs coverage via ptrace instrumentation

Use Cases:

Measuring test coverage for C/C++ applications
Tracking coverage in shell script test suites
CI/CD pipeline integration for multi-language projects
Generating coverage reports for legacy binaries

Alternatives:

gcov – GCC-specific, requires recompilation, C/C++ only
lcov – GCC front-end, requires recompilation, C/C++ focused
coverage.py – Python-only, requires import/modification

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 11, 2025 5:09pm		1	VERSION_BUMP	b99d2c30