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289 lines
12 KiB
289 lines
12 KiB
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
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<head>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="resources/doc.css" charset="UTF-8" type="text/css" />
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="../coverage/jacoco-resources/prettify.css" charset="UTF-8" type="text/css" />
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<link rel="shortcut icon" href="resources/report.gif" type="image/gif" />
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<script type="text/javascript" src="../coverage/jacoco-resources/prettify.js"></script>
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<title>JaCoCo - Implementation Design</title>
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</head>
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<body onload="prettyPrint()">
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<div class="breadcrumb">
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<a href="../index.html" class="el_report">JaCoCo</a> >
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<a href="index.html" class="el_group">Documentation</a> >
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<span class="el_source">Implementation Design</span>
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</div>
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<div id="content">
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<h1>Implementation Design</h1>
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<p>
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This is a unordered list of implementation design decisions. Each topic tries
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to follow this structure:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Problem statement</li>
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<li>Proposed Solution</li>
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<li>Alternatives and Discussion</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>Coverage Analysis Mechanism</h2>
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<p class="intro">
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Coverage information has to be collected at runtime. For this purpose JaCoCo
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creates instrumented versions of the original class definitions. The
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instrumentation process happens on-the-fly during class loading using so
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called Java agents.
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</p>
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<p>
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There are several different approaches to collect coverage information. For
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each approach different implementation techniques are known. The following
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diagram gives an overview with the techniques used by JaCoCo highlighted:
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</p>
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<img src="resources/implementation.png" alt="Coverage Implementation Techniques"/>
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<p>
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Byte code instrumentation is very fast, can be implemented in pure Java and
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works with every Java VM. On-the-fly instrumentation with the Java agent
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hook can be added to the JVM without any modification of the target
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application.
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</p>
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<p>
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The Java agent hook requires at least 1.5 JVMs. Class files compiled with
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debug information (line numbers) allow for source code highlighting. Unluckily
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some Java language constructs get compiled to byte code that produces
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unexpected highlighting results, especially in case of implicitly generated
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code like default constructors or control structures for finally statements.
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</p>
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<h2>Coverage Agent Isolation</h2>
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<p class="intro">
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The Java agent is loaded by the application class loader. Therefore the
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classes of the agent live in the same name space like the application classes
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which can result in clashes especially with the third party library ASM. The
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JoCoCo build therefore moves all agent classes into a unique package.
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</p>
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<p>
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The JaCoCo build renames all classes contained in the
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<code>jacocoagent.jar</code> into classes with a
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<code>org.jacoco.agent.rt_<randomid></code> prefix, including the
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required ASM library classes. The identifier is created from a random number.
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As the agent does not provide any API, no one should be affected by this
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renaming. This trick also allows that JaCoCo tests can be verified with
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JaCoCo.
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</p>
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<h2>Minimal Java Version</h2>
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<p class="intro">
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JaCoCo requires Java 1.5.
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</p>
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<p>
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The Java agent mechanism used for on-the-fly instrumentation became available
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with Java 1.5 VMs. Coding and testing with Java 1.5 language level is more
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efficient, less error-prone – and more fun than with older versions.
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JaCoCo will still allow to run against Java code compiled for these.
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</p>
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<h2>Byte Code Manipulation</h2>
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<p class="intro">
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Instrumentation requires mechanisms to modify and generate Java byte code.
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JaCoCo uses the ASM library for this purpose internally.
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</p>
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<p>
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Implementing the Java byte code specification would be an extensive and
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error-prone task. Therefore an existing library should be used. The
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<a href="http://asm.objectweb.org/">ASM</a> library is lightweight, easy to
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use and very efficient in terms of memory and CPU usage. It is actively
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maintained and includes as huge regression test suite. Its simplified BSD
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license is approved by the Eclipse Foundation for usage with EPL products.
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</p>
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<h2>Java Class Identity</h2>
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<p class="intro">
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Each class loaded at runtime needs a unique identity to associate coverage data with.
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JaCoCo creates such identities by a CRC64 hash code of the raw class definition.
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</p>
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<p>
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In multi-classloader environments the plain name of a class does not
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unambiguously identify a class. For example OSGi allows to use different
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versions of the same class to be loaded within the same VM. In complex
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deployment scenarios the actual version of the test target might be different
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from current development version. A code coverage report should guarantee that
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the presented figures are extracted from a valid test target. A hash code of
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the class definitions allows to differentiate between classes and versions of
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classes. The CRC64 hash computation is simple and fast resulting in a small 64
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bit identifier.
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</p>
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<p>
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The same class definition might be loaded by class loaders which will result
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in different classes for the Java runtime system. For coverage analysis this
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distinction should be irrelevant. Class definitions might be altered by other
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instrumentation based technologies (e.g. AspectJ). In this case the hash code
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will change and identity gets lost. On the other hand code coverage analysis
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based on classes that have been somehow altered will produce unexpected
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results. The CRC64 code might produce so called <i>collisions</i>, i.e.
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creating the same hash code for two different classes. Although CRC64 is not
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cryptographically strong and collision examples can be easily computed, for
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regular class files the collision probability is very low.
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</p>
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<h2>Coverage Runtime Dependency</h2>
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<p class="intro">
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Instrumented code typically gets a dependency to a coverage runtime which is
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responsible for collecting and storing execution data. JaCoCo uses JRE types
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only in generated instrumentation code.
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</p>
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<p>
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Making a runtime library available to all instrumented classes can be a
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painful or impossible task in frameworks that use their own class loading
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mechanisms. Since Java 1.6 <code>java.lang.instrument.Instrumentation</code>
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has an API to extends the bootsstrap loader. As our minimum target is Java 1.5
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JaCoCo decouples the instrumented classes and the coverage runtime through
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official JRE API types only. The instrumented classes communicate through the
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<code>Object.equals(Object)</code> method with the runtime. A instrumented
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class can retrieve its probe array instance with the following code. Note
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that only JRE APIs are used:
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</p>
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<pre class="source lang-java linenums">
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Object access = ... // Retrieve instance
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Object[] args = new Object[3];
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args[0] = Long.valueOf(8060044182221863588); // class id
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args[1] = "com/example/MyClass"; // class name
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args[2] = Integer.valueOf(24); // probe count
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access.equals(args);
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boolean[] probes = (boolean[]) args[0];
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</pre>
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<p>
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The most tricky part takes place in line 1 and is not shown in the snippet
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above. The object instance providing access to the coverage runtime through
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its <code>equals()</code> method has to be obtained. Different approaches have
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been implemented and tested so far:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li><b><code>SystemPropertiesRuntime</code></b>: This approach stores the
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object instance under a system property. This solution breaks the contract
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that system properties must only contain <code>java.lang.String</code>
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values and therefore causes trouble in applications that rely on this
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definition (e.g. Ant).</li>
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<li><b><code>LoggerRuntime</code></b>: Here we use a shared
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<code>java.util.logging.Logger</code> and communicate through the logging
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parameter array instead of a <code>equals()</code> method. The coverage
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runtime registers a custom <code>Handler</code> to receive the parameter
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array. This approach might break environments that install their own log
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managers (e.g. Glassfish).</li>
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<li><b><code>URLStreamHandlerRuntime</code></b>: This runtime registers a
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<code>URLStreamHandler</code> for a "jacoco-xxxxx" protocol. Instrumented
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classes open a connection on this protocol. The returned connection object
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is the one that provides access to the coverage runtime through its
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<code>equals()</code> method. However to register the protocol the runtime
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needs to access internal members of the <code>java.net.URL</code> class.</li>
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<li><b><code>ModifiedSystemClassRuntime</code></b>: This approach adds a
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public static field to an existing JRE class through instrumentation. Unlike
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the other methods above this is only possible for environments where a Java
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agent is active.</li>
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<li><b><code>InjectedClassRuntime</code></b>: This approach defines a new class
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using <code>java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles.Lookup.defineClass</code>
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introduced in Java 9.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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Starting from version 0.8.3 JaCoCo Java agent implementation uses the
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<code>InjectedClassRuntime</code> to define new class in bootstrap class
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loader when running on JRE 9 and higher, otherwise uses
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<code>ModifiedSystemClassRuntime</code> to add field to an existing JRE class.
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Starting from version 0.8.0 field is added to the class
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<code>java.lang.UnknownError</code>, versions 0.5.0 - 0.7.9 were adding field
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to the class <code>java.util.UUID</code>, having bigger chance of conflict
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with other agents.
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</p>
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<h2>Memory Usage</h2>
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<p class="intro">
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Coverage analysis for huge projects with several thousand classes or hundred
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thousand lines of code should be possible. To allow this with reasonable
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memory usage the coverage analysis is based on streaming patterns and
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"depth first" traversals.
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</p>
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<p>
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The complete data tree of a huge coverage report is too big to fit into a
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reasonable heap memory configuration. Therefore the coverage analysis and
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report generation is implemented as "depth first" traversals. Which means that
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at any point in time only the following data has to be held in working memory:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>A single class which is currently processed.</li>
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<li>The summary information of all parents of this class (package, groups).</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>Java Element Identifiers</h2>
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<p class="intro">
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The Java language and the Java VM use different String representation formats
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for Java elements. For example while a type reference in Java reads like
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<code>java.lang.Object</code>, the VM references the same type as
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<code>Ljava/lang/Object;</code>. The JaCoCo API is based on VM identifiers only.
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</p>
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<p>
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Using VM identifiers directly does not cause any transformation overhead at
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runtime. There are several programming languages based on the Java VM that
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might use different notations. Specific transformations should therefore only
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happen at the user interface level, for example during report generation.
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</p>
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<h2>Modularization of the JaCoCo implementation</h2>
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<p class="intro">
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JaCoCo is implemented in several modules providing different functionality.
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These modules are provided as OSGi bundles with proper manifest files. But
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there are no dependencies on OSGi itself.
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</p>
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<p>
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Using OSGi bundles allows well defined dependencies at development time and
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at runtime in OSGi containers. As there are no dependencies on OSGi, the
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bundles can also be used like regular JAR files.
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</p>
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</div>
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<div class="footer">
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<span class="right"><a href="@jacoco.home.url@">JaCoCo</a> @qualified.bundle.version@</span>
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<a href="license.html">Copyright</a> © @copyright.years@ Mountainminds GmbH & Co. KG and Contributors
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</div>
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</body>
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</html>
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