Stemming from some hallway track conversations with maintainers at LPC 2026, I propose replacing gcov and kcov in the kernel with llvm-cov.
llvm-cov instruments at the AST which enables precise mapping back to source code regardless of optimization level. We have a set of patches [1] that implements kernel based llvm-cov. They need to be updated and some additional patches are required to address some stubs that are missing noinstr annotation. But otherwise I should be able to send a full set of patches (including taking on the maintainer role) to remove gcov and kcov and replace it with llvm-cov in fairly short order. If there is a desire to take this in pieces or implement other intermediate steps, let me know. Otherwise I can generate a monolithic set all at once. [1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/[email protected]/ Thank you, ..Ch:W..
