HIFIVE1-VP/etc/gcov_pointers.txt

https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source/kernel/gcov/gcc_4_7.c
https://github.com/gcc-mirror/gcc/blob/master/gcc/gcov-io.c
https://github.com/gcc-mirror/gcc/blob/master/gcc/gcov-io.h
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36839354/generating-gcda-coverage-files-via-qemu-gdb
http://blog.techveda.org/howsourcedebuggerswork/

   Coverage information is held in two files.  A notes file, which is
   generated by the compiler, and a data file, which is generated by
   the program under test.  Both files use a similar structure.  We do
   not attempt to make these files backwards compatible with previous
   versions, as you only need coverage information when developing a
   program.  We do hold version information, so that mismatches can be
   detected, and we use a format that allows tools to skip information
   they do not understand or are not interested in.
   Numbers are recorded in the 32 bit unsigned binary form of the
   endianness of the machine generating the file. 64 bit numbers are
   stored as two 32 bit numbers, the low part first.  Strings are
   padded with 1 to 4 NUL bytes, to bring the length up to a multiple
   of 4. The number of 4 bytes is stored, followed by the padded
   string. Zero length and NULL strings are simply stored as a length
   of zero (they have no trailing NUL or padding).
   	int32:  byte3 byte2 byte1 byte0 | byte0 byte1 byte2 byte3
	int64:  int32:low int32:high
	string: int32:0 | int32:length char* char:0 padding
	padding: | char:0 | char:0 char:0 | char:0 char:0 char:0
	item: int32 | int64 | string
   The basic format of the notes file is
	file : int32:magic int32:version int32:stamp int32:support_unexecuted_blocks record*
   The basic format of the data file is
   	file : int32:magic int32:version int32:stamp record*
   The magic ident is different for the notes and the data files.  The
   magic ident is used to determine the endianness of the file, when
   reading.  The version is the same for both files and is derived
   from gcc's version number. The stamp value is used to synchronize
   note and data files and to synchronize merging within a data
   file. It need not be an absolute time stamp, merely a ticker that
   increments fast enough and cycles slow enough to distinguish
   different compile/run/compile cycles.
   Although the ident and version are formally 32 bit numbers, they
   are derived from 4 character ASCII strings.  The version number
   consists of a two character major version number
   (first digit starts from 'A' letter to not to clash with the older
   numbering scheme), the single character minor version number,
   and a single character indicating the status of the release.
   That will be 'e' experimental, 'p' prerelease and 'r' for release.
   Because, by good fortune, these are in alphabetical order, string
   collating can be used to compare version strings.  Be aware that
   the 'e' designation will (naturally) be unstable and might be
   incompatible with itself.  For gcc 17.0 experimental, it would be
   'B70e' (0x42373065).  As we currently do not release more than 5 minor
   releases, the single character should be always fine.  Major number
   is currently changed roughly every year, which gives us space
   for next 250 years (maximum allowed number would be 259.9).
   A record has a tag, length and variable amount of data.
   	record: header data
	header: int32:tag int32:length
	data: item*
   Records are not nested, but there is a record hierarchy.  Tag
   numbers reflect this hierarchy.  Tags are unique across note and
   data files.  Some record types have a varying amount of data.  The
   LENGTH is the number of 4bytes that follow and is usually used to
   determine how much data.  The tag value is split into 4 8-bit
   fields, one for each of four possible levels.  The most significant
   is allocated first.  Unused levels are zero.  Active levels are
   odd-valued, so that the LSB of the level is one.  A sub-level
   incorporates the values of its superlevels.  This formatting allows
   you to determine the tag hierarchy, without understanding the tags
   themselves, and is similar to the standard section numbering used
   in technical documents.  Level values [1..3f] are used for common
   tags, values [41..9f] for the notes file and [a1..ff] for the data
   file.
   The notes file contains the following records
   	note: unit function-graph*
	unit: header int32:checksum string:source
	function-graph: announce_function basic_blocks {arcs | lines}*
	announce_function: header int32:ident
		int32:lineno_checksum int32:cfg_checksum
		string:name string:source int32:start_lineno int32:start_column int32:end_lineno
	basic_block: header int32:flags*
	arcs: header int32:block_no arc*
	arc:  int32:dest_block int32:flags
        lines: header int32:block_no line*
               int32:0 string:NULL
	line:  int32:line_no | int32:0 string:filename
   The BASIC_BLOCK record holds per-bb flags.  The number of blocks
   can be inferred from its data length.  There is one ARCS record per
   basic block.  The number of arcs from a bb is implicit from the
   data length.  It enumerates the destination bb and per-arc flags.
   There is one LINES record per basic block, it enumerates the source
   lines which belong to that basic block.  Source file names are
   introduced by a line number of 0, following lines are from the new
   source file.  The initial source file for the function is NULL, but
   the current source file should be remembered from one LINES record
   to the next.  The end of a block is indicated by an empty filename
   - this does not reset the current source file.  Note there is no
   ordering of the ARCS and LINES records: they may be in any order,
   interleaved in any manner.  The current filename follows the order
   the LINES records are stored in the file, *not* the ordering of the
   blocks they are for.
   The data file contains the following records.
        data: {unit summary:object summary:program* function-data*}*
	unit: header int32:checksum
        function-data:	announce_function present counts
	announce_function: header int32:ident
		int32:lineno_checksum int32:cfg_checksum
	present: header int32:present
	counts: header int64:count*
	summary: int32:checksum {count-summary}GCOV_COUNTERS_SUMMABLE
	count-summary:	int32:num int32:runs int64:sum
			int64:max int64:sum_max histogram
        histogram: {int32:bitvector}8 histogram-buckets*
        histogram-buckets: int32:num int64:min int64:sum
   The ANNOUNCE_FUNCTION record is the same as that in the note file,
   but without the source location.  The COUNTS gives the
   counter values for instrumented features.  The about the whole
   program.  The checksum is used for whole program summaries, and
   disambiguates different programs which include the same
   instrumented object file.  There may be several program summaries,
   each with a unique checksum.  The object summary's checksum is
   zero.  Note that the data file might contain information from
   several runs concatenated, or the data might be merged.
   This file is included by both the compiler, gcov tools and the
   runtime support library libgcov. IN_LIBGCOV and IN_GCOV are used to
   distinguish which case is which.  If IN_LIBGCOV is nonzero,
   libgcov is being built. If IN_GCOV is nonzero, the gcov tools are
   being built. Otherwise the compiler is being built. IN_GCOV may be
   positive or negative. If positive, we are compiling a tool that
   requires additional functions (see the code for knowledge of what
   those functions are).