How To Install lcov on Ubuntu 18.04

In this tutorial we learn how to install lcov on Ubuntu 18.04. lcov is Summarise Code coverage information from GCOV

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install lcov on Ubuntu 18.04.

What is lcov

lcov is:

LCOV is an extension of GCOV, a GNU tool which provides information about what parts of a program are actually executed (i.e. “covered”) while running a particular test case. The extension consists of a set of Perl scripts which build on the textual GCOV output to implement the following enhanced functionality:

  • HTML based output: coverage rates are additionally indicated using bar graphs and specific colors.
  • Support for large projects: overview pages allow quick browsing of coverage data by providing three levels of detail: directory view, file view and source code view.

There are three methods to install lcov on Ubuntu 18.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install lcov Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install lcov using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install lcov

Install lcov Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install lcov using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install lcov

Install lcov Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install lcov using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install lcov

How To Uninstall lcov on Ubuntu 18.04

To uninstall only the lcov package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove lcov

Uninstall lcov And Its Dependencies

To uninstall lcov and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 18.04, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove lcov

Remove lcov Configurations and Data

To remove lcov configuration and data from Ubuntu 18.04 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge lcov

Remove lcov configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove lcov configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge lcov

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install lcov package on Ubuntu 18.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.