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13  <a href="../index.html" class="el_report">JaCoCo</a> &gt;
14  <a href="index.html" class="el_group">Documentation</a> &gt;
15  <span class="el_source">Mission</span>
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18
19<h1>Mission</h1>
20
21<p class="intro">
22  JaCoCo should provide the standard technology for code coverage analysis in
23  Java VM based environments. The focus is providing a lightweight, flexible and
24  well documented library for integration with various build and development
25  tools.
26</p>
27
28<p>
29  There are several open source coverage technologies for Java available. While
30  implementing the Eclipse plug-in <a href="http://www.eclemma.org/">EclEmma</a>
31  the observation was that none of them are really designed for integration.
32  Most of them are specifically fit to a particular tool (Ant tasks, command
33  line, IDE plug-in) and do not offer a documented API that allows embedding in
34  different contexts. Two of the best and widely used available open source
35  tools are <a href="http://emma.sourceforge.net/">EMMA</a> and
36  <a href="http://cobertura.sourceforge.net/">Cobertura</a>. Both tools are not
37  actively maintained by the original authors any more and do not support the
38  current Java versions. Due to the lack of regression tests maintenance and
39  feature additions is difficult.
40</p>
41
42<p>
43  Therefore we started the JaCoCo project to provide a new standard technology
44  for code coverage analysis in Java VM based environments. The focus is
45  providing a lightweight, flexible and well documented library for integration
46  with various build and development tools. <a href="ant.html">Ant tasks</a>, a
47  <a href="maven.html">Maven plug-in</a> and the
48  <a href="http://www.eclemma.org/">EclEmma Eclipse plug-in</a> are provided as
49  reference usage scenarios. Also many other tool vendors and Open Source
50  projects have <a href="integrations.html">integrated</a> JaCoCo into their
51  tools.
52</p>
53
54<h2>Product Definition</h2>
55
56<h3>Features</h3>
57<ul>
58  <li>Coverage <a href="counters.html">analysis</a> of instructions (C0),
59      branches (C1), lines, methods, types and cyclomatic complexity.</li>
60  <li>Based on Java byte code and therefore works also without source files.</li>
61  <li>Simple integration through <a href="agent.html">Java agent</a> based
62      on-the-fly instrumentation. Other integration scenarios like custom class
63      loaders are possible through the API.</li>
64  <li>Framework agnostic: Smoothly integrates with Java VM based applications
65      like plain Java programs, OSGi frameworks, web containers or EJB servers.</li>
66  <li>Compatible with all released Java class file versions.</li>
67  <li>Support for different
68      <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_JVM_languages">JVM languages</a>.</li>
69  <li>Several report formats (HTML, XML, CSV).</li>
70  <li>Remote protocol and JMX control to request execution data dumps from the
71      coverage agent at any point in time.</li>
72  <li><a href="ant.html">Ant tasks</a> to collect and manage execution
73      data and create structured coverage reports.</li>
74  <li><a href="maven.html">Maven plug-in</a> to collect coverage information
75      and create reports in Maven builds.</li>
76</ul>
77
78<h3>Non-Functional Characteristics</h3>
79<ul>
80  <li>Simple usage and integration with existing build scripts and tools.</li>
81  <li>Good performance with minimal runtime overhead especially for large scale
82      projects.</li>
83  <li>Lightweight implementation with minimal dependencies on external libraries
84      and system resources.</li>
85  <li>Comprehensive documentation.</li>
86  <li>Fully documented APIs (<a href="api/index.html">JavaDoc</a>) and
87      <a href="api.html">examples</a> for <a href="integrations.html">integration</a>
88      with other tools.</li>
89  <li>Regression <a href="../test/index.html">tests</a> with full functional
90      test <a href="../coverage/index.html">coverage</a> based on
91      <a href="http://junit.org/">JUnit</a> test cases.</li>
92</ul>
93
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96  <span class="right"><a href="@jacoco.home.url@">JaCoCo</a> @qualified.bundle.version@</span>
97  <a href="license.html">Copyright</a> &copy; @copyright.years@ Mountainminds GmbH &amp; Co. KG and Contributors
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