About Filtering Purify Coverage Data

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Use the Filter Manager: Coverage Data dialog box to create, edit, and maintain coverage data filters. To save any changes you make, click Save Settings in the Filter Manager dialog box. Purify saves them in Exename_exe.cft and uses the new version of the file the next time you run the program. The filters in this file apply to all runs of the program Exename.exe, unless you disable them in the Filter Manager dialog box.

As you analyze the coverage data, you can create additional coverage filters using the QuickFilter command or the Filter Manager: Coverage Data dialog box. You can filter data by module, by source file, or by function. When you create new coverage filters, Purify adds them to the existing filters in the PureCoverage filter file Exename_exe.cft.

Purify uses global coverage filters to remove coverage data for non-critical functions from system libraries and other program modules before it displays the data for the program you're checking. Purify's global coverage filters are contained in the PureCoverage filter file Coveragew_exe.cft.

If you create, edit, and apply filters and then want to use your previously saved filters, click Revert to Saved, and then click Save Settings again to save them for future runs. You can revert to using the Purify global coverage filters by clicking Reset to Default and Save Settings to use the global coverage filters for future runs.

You can also create filter files for specific modules, such as DLLs, to use whenever you monitor a program that uses that module. For more information, click images\shortcut.gif

For details about filter file names and their locations, click images\shortcut.gif.

Purify provides command-line options for controlling the use of filters, which is especially useful when you monitor programs from the command line, or use test harnesses or scripts. For example, you can add this line to the beginning of a test script:

Purify /Coverage /SaveTextData /FilterFiles=test_harness.cft /Replace=yes hello.exe

This line instructs Purify to collect coverage data, in addition to error data, for the program Hello.exe using the filters contained in the filter file Test_harness.cft, and to save the data in a text file without opening any Purify windows.

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