The trace module command-line utility doesn't write cover files. I've noticed this issue for some years now. It works fine in Python 2. When using Python 3, no ".cover" files are written, regardless of how "--coverdir" is specified.

    mike on macbook in ~/
    $ echo 'print("hello")' > foo.py

    mike on macbook in ~/
    $ python -m trace --count foo.py
    hello

    mike on macbook in ~/
    $ ls *.cover
    ls: *.cover: No such file or directory


My apologies if this is a duplicate bug. I searched the tracker and Google for a while, but couldn't find a relevant issue.

It worked in Python 3.4, but not afterwards.

The problem appears to be a mistake in commit f026dae130bf6f9015c4b212f16852ba4a3f3dec

https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/f026dae130bf6f9015c4b212f16852ba4a3f3dec

This made the writing of cover files conditional on ``show_missing`` which is the option to mark lines which weren't executed with several angle brackets ">>>>>".

https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/3.5/Lib/trace.py#L326

    mike on mac in ~/
    $ python -m trace --count foo.py
    hello

    mike on mac in ~/
    $ ls *.cover
    ls: *.cover: No such file or directory

    mike on mac in ~/
    $ python -m trace --count -m foo.py
    hello

    mike on mac in ~/
    $ ls *.cover
    -rw-r--r--  1 mike  staff    22B Oct 31 15:40 foo.cover

While writing a patch for this, I noticed the ``lnotab`` parameter seems nearly unused. It's a dict, but is only used for its keys.

https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Lib/trace.py#L333

Further, the choice to count unreached lines only when ``show_missing`` was set seems inconsistent.

https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Lib/trace.py#L335

https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Lib/trace.py#L280

Ok, pull request submitted:
https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/4205

I think the first part of your patch also fixes issue 26818. Could you adapt the test there and add a test case for the problem in this issue?

You're referring to something like this:

+    def test_count_and_summary(self):
+        name = TESTFN + '.py'
+        with open(name, 'w') as fd:
+            self.addCleanup(unlink, name)
+            fd.write("""\
+x = 1
+y = 2
+
+def f():
+    return x + y
+
+for i in range(10):
+    f()
+            """)
+        status, stdout, stderr = assert_python_ok('-m', 'trace', '-cs', name)
+        self.assertEqual(status, 0)
+        self.assertIn(b'lines   cov%   module   (path)', stdout)
+        self.assertIn(('6   100%%   %s   (%s)' % (TESTFN, name)).encode(), stdout)
+

?