Acovea (analysis of compiler options via evolutionary algorithm) implements a genetic algorithm to find the "best" options for compiling programs with the gnu compiler collection (gcc) c and c++ compilers. "best," in this context, is defined as those options that produce the fastest executable program from a given source code.

acovea is a c++ framework that can be extended to test other programming languages and non-gcc compilers.

acovea is envisioned as an optimization tool, similar in purpose to profiling. traditional function-level profiling identifies the algorithms most influential in a program's performance; acovea is then applied to those algorithms to find the compiler flags and options that generate the fastest code. acovea is also useful for testing combinations of flags for pessimistic interactions, and for examining the reliability of the compiler.