Since people make this mistake, and it's mysterious: accept a single string for omit and include.

3 files changed, 27 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 45dc1dc5..7d71d019 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ Version 3.5
   If it does not, it is interpreted relative to the current directory.
   Closes `issue 121`.
 
+- The ``coverage()`` constructor accepts single strings for the ``omit=`` and
+  ``include=`` arguments, adapting to a common error in programmatic use.
+
 - Modules can now be run directly using ``coverage run -m modulename``, to
   mirror Python's ``-m`` flag.  Closes `issue 95_`, thanks, Brandon Rhodes.
 
diff --git a/coverage/control.py b/coverage/control.py
index dd656616..cee073e4 100644
--- a/coverage/control.py
+++ b/coverage/control.py
@@ -64,7 +64,8 @@ class coverage(object):
         measured.
 
         `include` and `omit` are lists of filename patterns. Files that match
-        `include` will be measured, files that match `omit` will not.
+        `include` will be measured, files that match `omit` will not.  Each
+        will also accept a single string argument.
 
         """
         from coverage import __version__
@@ -95,6 +96,10 @@ class coverage(object):
             self.config.data_file = env_data_file
 
         # 4: from constructor arguments:
+        if isinstance(omit, string_class):
+            omit = [omit]
+        if isinstance(include, string_class):
+            include = [include]
         self.config.from_args(
             data_file=data_file, cover_pylib=cover_pylib, timid=timid,
             branch=branch, parallel=bool_or_none(data_suffix),
diff --git a/test/test_api.py b/test/test_api.py
index 31d8988b..0a0aabfd 100644
--- a/test/test_api.py
+++ b/test/test_api.py
@@ -388,6 +388,15 @@ class SourceOmitIncludeTest(CoverageTest):
             "p1b.py p1c.py p2b.py otherb.py osb.py"
             )
 
+    def test_include_as_string(self):
+        lines = self.coverage_usepkgs_summary(include="*a.py")
+        self.filenames_in_summary(lines,
+            "p1a.py p2a.py othera.py osa.py"
+            )
+        self.filenames_not_in_summary(lines,
+            "p1b.py p1c.py p2b.py otherb.py osb.py"
+            )
+
     def test_omit(self):
         lines = self.coverage_usepkgs_summary(omit=["*/p1a.py"])
         self.filenames_in_summary(lines,
@@ -406,6 +415,15 @@ class SourceOmitIncludeTest(CoverageTest):
             "p1a.py p1c.py p2a.py othera.py osa.py"
             )
 
+    def test_omit_as_string(self):
+        lines = self.coverage_usepkgs_summary(omit="*a.py")
+        self.filenames_in_summary(lines,
+            "p1b.py p2b.py otherb.py osb.py"
+            )
+        self.filenames_not_in_summary(lines,
+            "p1a.py p1c.py p2a.py othera.py osa.py"
+            )
+
     def test_omit_and_include(self):
         lines = self.coverage_usepkgs_summary(
                             include=["*/p1*"], omit=["*/p1a.py"]