Available from release 3.0.488, this parallels the facility in coverlet; it is equivalent to doing AltCover --inplace --save in the project output directory before the tests are run, then AltCover Runner --collect after, then deleting the instrumented files and moving the saved originals back in place.
There is an API available for use with build scripting that composes the appropriate command line.
Note: With AltCover, there is no requirement that the assembly from which coverage is gathered be distinct from the assembly that contains the tests. Use /p:AltCoverAssemblyExcludeFilter if you want to exclude the unit tests from coverage.
Install into your test project
dotnet add package AltCover
(or package altcover.api from release 4.0.600 or package altcover.dotnet from release 3.5.550 to 6.8.761) and switch on to run
dotnet test /p:AltCover=true
In the default operation it will produce OpenCover format output in a file coverage.xml (or in the case of multiple target frameworks, and from release 4.0.600, files of the form coverage.$(TargetFramework).xml for each such target) in your project directory.
And if you want more control over what happens to the files, then is is still possible to use AltCover in its original, explicit, mode – just don’t use the /p:AltCover=true switch.
/p:AltCoverSymbolDirectories=“pipe '|' separated list of paths”/p:AltCoverDependencyList=“pipe '|' separated AND TERMINATED list of paths”/p:AltCoverKeys=“pipe '|' separated list of paths to strong-name keys for re-signing assemblies”/p:AltCoverFileFilter=“pipe '|' separated list of file name regexes”/p:AltCoverAssemblyFilter=“pipe '|' separated list of names”/p:AltCoverAssemblyExcludeFilter=“pipe '|' separated list of names”/p:AltCoverTypeFilter=“pipe '|' separated list of names”/p:AltCoverMethodFilter=“pipe '|' separated list of names”/p:AltCoverAttributeFilter=“pipe '|' separated list of names”/p:AltCoverPathFilter=“pipe '|' separated list of file path regexes”/p:AltCoverAttributeTopLevel=“pipe '|' separated list of attribute regexs”/p:AltCoverTypeTopLevel=“pipe '|' separated list of typename regexs”/p:AltCoverMethodTopLevel=“pipe '|' separated list of method name regexs”/p:AltCoverCallContext=“pipe '|' separated list of names or numbers”/p:AltCoverStrongNameKey=“path to default strong-name key for assemblies”/p:AltCoverReport=“path to the report” default: coverage.xml or coverage.json in the project directory/p:AltCoverReportFormat=“Json”, “NCover” or default “OpenCover”/p:AltCoverShowStatic=-|+|++ to mark simple code like auto-properties in the coverage file/p:AltCoverOutputRoot=“path of root folder for saved/instrumented output for dotnet test, default $(TargetDir)”/p:AltCoverZipFile="true|false" - set “true” to store the coverage report in a .zip archive/p:AltCoverMethodPoint="true|false" - set “true” to record only the first point of each method/p:AltCoverSingle="true|false" - set “true” to record only the first visit to each point/p:AltCoverLineCover="true|false" - set “true” to record only line coverage in OpenCover format/p:AltCoverBranchCover="true|false" - set “true” to record only branch coverage in OpenCover format/p:AltCoverSourceLink=true|false to opt for SourceLink document URLs for tracked files/p:AltCoverLocalSource=true|false to ignore assemblies with .pdbs that don’t refer to local source/p:AltCoverVisibleBranches=true|false to ignore compiler generated internal switch/match branches/p:AltCoverShowGenerated=true|false to mark generated code in the coverage file/p:AltCoverTrivia=true|false to omit trivial sequence points/p:AltCoverInPlace=true|false to test in-place (meaning extra file copies)/p:AltCoverLcovReport=“path to lcov format result”/p:AltCoverCobertura=“path to cobertura format result”/p:AltCoverThreshold=“coverage threshold required”/p:AltCoverSummaryFormat=[BROCN+] one or more of TeamCity Block format/TeamCity bRanch format/Classic OpenCover/CRAP score or none at all; + means the same as OC which is also the default/p:AltCoverVerbosity=“Levels of output – Verbose, Info (default), Warning, Error, or Off”/p:AltCoverShowSummary=true|[ConsoleColor] to echo the coverage summary to stdout (in the colour of choice, modulo what else your build process might be doing) if the string is a valid ConsoleColor name) N.B. if this option is present, with any non-empty value then the summary will be echoed/p:AltCoverForce=true|false to force delete any left-over __Instrumented* (or __Saved*, if InPlace is set) folders from previous runs/p:AltCoverFailFast=true|false to skip coverage collection if the unit tests fail/p:AltCoverImportModule=true to emit the Import-Module command needed to register the pwsh support/p:AltCoverGetVersion=true|false to emit the current AltCover versionNote: The pipe character | is used as a separator because the previous choice of ; didn’t play nice with MSBuild. In v6.0.700 or later, to introduce a | into a regex, escape it in by doubling (||); if a triplet ||| or longer is present, doubling gets grouped from the left. Sample use : /p:AltCoverAssemblyExcludeFilter='^(?!(NameA||NameB)).*$' to include only NameA or NameB.
Note: As MSBuild informational output is suppressed by default with dotnet test, and log verbosity has no fine-grained control, the -v m (--verbosity minimal) option is needed to show the progress and summary information for the instrumentation and collection process if this is desired.
Note: In the case of multiple target frameworks the framework identifier will be inserted ahead of the extension (if any) of the file name given in /p:AltCoverReport just as for the default coverage.xml or coverage.json name.
dotnet test /p:AltCover=true /p:AltCoverReport=".\altcover.xml" /p:AltCoverAssemblyExcludeFilter=NUnit
Chooses a different report name, and excludes the NUnit3.TestAdapter assembly that comes with its pdb files, and gets instrumented by default.