LINT(CP) XENIX System V LINT(CP)
Name
lint - Checks C language usage and syntax.
Syntax
lint [-abchnpuvx] [-Idir] [-DUname] [-ollib] [-LARGE] file
...
Description
lint attempts to detect features of the C program file that
are likely to be bugs, nonportable, or wasteful. It also
checks type usage more strictly than the C compiler. Among
the things which are currently detected are unreachable
statements, loops not entered at the top, automatic
variables declared and not used, and logical expressions
whose value is constant. Moreover, the usage of functions
is checked to find functions which return values in some
places and not in others, functions called with varying
numbers of arguments, and functions whose values are not
used.
If more than one file is given, it is assumed that all the
files are to be loaded together; they are checked for mutual
compatibility. If routines from the standard library are
called from file, lint checks the function definitions using
the standard lint library llibc.ln. If lint is invoked with
the -p option, it checks function definitions from the
portable lint library llibport.ln.
Any number of lint options may be used, in any order. The
following options are used to suppress certain kinds of
complaints:
-a Suppresses complaints about assignments of long values
to variables that are not long.
-b Suppresses complaints about break statements that
cannot be reached. (Programs produced by lex or yacc
will often result in a large number of such
complaints.)
-c Suppresses complaints about casts that have
questionable portability.
-h Does not apply heuristic tests that attempt to intuit
bugs, improve style, and reduce waste.
-u Suppresses complaints about functions and external
variables used and not defined, or defined and not
used. (This option is suitable for running lint on a
subset of files of a larger program.)
-v Suppresses complaints about unused arguments in
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LINT(CP) XENIX System V LINT(CP)
functions.
-x Does not report variables referred to by external
declarations but never used.
The following arguments alter lint's behavior:
-LARGE
Uses large model versions of the compiler and lint
passes. This enables lint to handle flexnames
(identifiers greater than 8 characters in length).
-n Does not check compatibility against either the
standard or the portable lint library.
-o Creates a hashed (i.e. faster) version of lint library
lib with suffix ``.ln''.
-p Attempts to check portability to other dialects of C.
-llibname
Checks function definitions in the specified lint
library. For example, -lm causes the library llibm.ln
to be checked.
The -D, -U, and -I options of cc(CP) are also recognized as
separate arguments.
Certain conventional comments in the C source will change
the behavior of lint:
/*NOTREACHED*/
At appropriate points stops comments about
unreachable code.
/*VARARGSn*/
Suppresses the usual checking for variable numbers
of arguments in the following function
declaration. The data types of the first n
arguments are checked; a missing n is taken to be
0.
/*ARGSUSED*/
Turns on the -v option for the next function.
/*LINTLIBRARY*/
Shuts off complaints about unused functions in
this file.
lint produces its first output on a per source file basis.
Complaints regarding included files are collected and
displayed after all source files have been processed.
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Finally, information gathered from all input files is
collected and checked for consistency. At this point, if it
is not clear whether a complaint stems from a given source
file or from one of its included files, the source filename
is displayed followed by a question mark.
Files
/usr/lib/lint[12] Program files
/usr/lib/llibc.ln, /usr/lib/llibport.ln, /usr/lib/llibm.ln,
/usr/lib/llibdbm.ln, /usr/lib/llibtermlib.ln
Standard lint libraries (binary format)
/usr/lib/llibc, /usr/lib/llibport, /usr/lib/llibm, /usr/lib/llibdbm,
/usr/lib/llibtermlib
Standard lint libraries (source format)
/usr/tmp/*lint* Temporaries
See Also
cc(CP)
Notes
exit(S), and other functions which do not return, are not
understood. This can cause improper error messages.
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