# Excluding code from coverage.py

You may have code in your project that you know won’t be executed, and you want to tell coverage.py to ignore it. For example, you may have debugging-only code that won’t be executed during your unit tests. You can tell coverage.py to exclude this code during reporting so that it doesn’t clutter your reports with noise about code that you don’t need to hear about.

Coverage.py will look for comments marking clauses for exclusion. In this code, the “if debug” clause is excluded from reporting:

    a = my_function1()
    if debug:  # pragma: no cover
        msg = "blah blah"
        log_message(msg, a)
    b = my_function2()

By default, any line with a comment of `pragma: no cover` is excluded. If that line introduces a clause, for example, an `if` clause, or a function or class definition, then the entire clause is also excluded. Here the `__repr__` function is not reported as missing:

    class MyObject(object):
        def __init__(self):
            blah1()
            blah2()

        def __repr__(self):  # pragma: no cover
            return "<MyObject>"

Excluded code is executed as usual, and its execution is recorded in the coverage data as usual. When producing reports though, coverage.py excludes it from the list of missing code.

## Branch coverage

When measuring branch coverage, a conditional will not be counted as a branch if one of its choices is excluded:

    def only_one_choice(x):
        if x:
            blah1()
            blah2()
        else:  # pragma: no cover
            # x is always true.
            blah3()

Because the `else` clause is excluded, the `if` only has one possible next line, so it isn’t considered a branch at all.

## Advanced exclusion

Coverage.py identifies exclusions by matching source code against a list of regular expressions. Using configuration files or the coverage API, you can add to that list. This is useful if you have often-used constructs to exclude that can be matched with a regex. You can exclude them all at once without littering your code with exclusion pragmas.

Before coverage.py 7.6.0, the regexes were matched against single lines of your source code. Now they can be multi-line regexes that find matches across lines. See Multi-line exclusion regexes.

If a matched line introduces a block, the entire block is excluded from reporting. Matching a `def` line or decorator line will exclude an entire function.

For example, you might decide that __repr__ functions are usually only used in debugging code, and are uninteresting to test themselves. You could exclude all of them by adding a regex to the exclusion list:

- .coveragerc
- pyproject.toml
- setup.cfg or tox.ini

    [report]
    exclude_also =
        def __repr__

    [tool.coverage.report]
    exclude_also = [
        "def __repr__",
    ]

    [coverage:report]
    exclude_also =
        def __repr__

For example, here’s a list of exclusions I’ve used:

- .coveragerc
- pyproject.toml
- setup.cfg or tox.ini

    [report]
    exclude_also =
        def __repr__
        if self.debug:
        if settings.DEBUG
        raise AssertionError
        raise NotImplementedError
        if 0:
        if __name__ == .__main__.:
        if TYPE_CHECKING:
        class .*\bProtocol\):
        @(abc\.)?abstractmethod

    [tool.coverage.report]
    exclude_also = [
        'def __repr__',
        'if self.debug:',
        'if settings.DEBUG',
        'raise AssertionError',
        'raise NotImplementedError',
        'if 0:',
        'if __name__ == .__main__.:',
        'if TYPE_CHECKING:',
        'class .*\bProtocol\):',
        '@(abc\.)?abstractmethod',
    ]

    [coverage:report]
    exclude_also =
        def __repr__
        if self.debug:
        if settings.DEBUG
        raise AssertionError
        raise NotImplementedError
        if 0:
        if __name__ == .__main__.:
        if TYPE_CHECKING:
        class .*\bProtocol\):
        @(abc\.)?abstractmethod

The [report] exclude_also option adds regexes to the built-in default list so that you can add your own exclusions. The older [report] exclude_lines option completely overwrites the list of regexes.

The regexes only have to match part of a line. Be careful not to over-match. A value of `...` will match any line with more than three characters in it.

A similar pragma, “no branch”, can be used to tailor branch coverage measurement. See Branch coverage measurement for details.

## Multi-line exclusion regexes

Added in version 7.6.0.

Exclusion regexes can match multi-line regions. All of the lines in a matched region will be excluded. If part of the region introduces a block, the entire block is excluded even if part of it is outside the matched region.

When writing regexes to match multiple lines, remember that `"."` won’t match a newline character, but `"\n"` or `"(?s:.)"` will. The regexes in these settings are combined, so you cannot use global flags like `(?s)` in your regexes. Use the scoped flag form instead: `(?s:...)`

Here are some examples:

- .coveragerc
- pyproject.toml
- setup.cfg or tox.ini

    [report]
    exclude_also =
        ; 1. Exclude an except clause of a specific form:
        except ValueError:\n\s*assume\(False\)
        ; 2. Comments to turn coverage on and off:
        no cover: start(?s:.)*?no cover: stop
        ; 3. A pragma comment that excludes an entire file:
        \A(?s:.*# pragma: exclude file.*)\Z

    [tool.coverage.report]
    exclude_also = [
        # 1. Exclude an except clause of a specific form:
        'except ValueError:\n\s*assume\(False\)',
        # 2. Comments to turn coverage on and off:
        'no cover: start(?s:.)*?no cover: stop',
        # 3. A pragma comment that excludes an entire file:
        '\A(?s:.*# pragma: exclude file.*)\Z',
    ]

    [coverage:report]
    exclude_also =
        ; 1. Exclude an except clause of a specific form:
        except ValueError:\n\s*assume\(False\)
        ; 2. Comments to turn coverage on and off:
        no cover: start(?s:.)*?no cover: stop
        ; 3. A pragma comment that excludes an entire file:
        \A(?s:.*# pragma: exclude file.*)\Z

The first regex matches a specific except line followed by a specific function call. Both lines must be present for the exclusion to take effect. Note that the regex uses `"\n\s*"` to match the newline and the indentation of the second line. Without these, the regex won’t match.

The second regex creates a pair of comments that can be used to exclude statements between them. All lines between `# no cover: start` and `# no cover: stop` will be excluded. The regex doesn’t start with `#` because that’s a comment in a .coveragerc file. Be careful with wildcards: we’ve used the non-greedy `*?` to match the fewest possible characters between the comments. If you used the greedy `*` instead, the star would match as many as possible, and you could accidentally exclude large swaths of code.

The third regex matches the entire text of a file containing the comment `# pragma: exclude file`. This lets you exclude files from coverage measurement with an internal comment instead of naming them in a settings file. This regex uses the `"(?s:...)"` regex flag to let a dot match any character including a newline.

## Excluding source files

See Specifying source files for ways to limit what files coverage.py measures or reports on.