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lintian(1)		    Debian Package Checker		    lintian(1)

NAME
       lintian - Static analysis tool for Debian packages

SYNOPSIS
       lintian [action] [options] [packages] ...

DESCRIPTION
       Lintian dissects Debian packages and reports bugs and policy
       violations.  It contains automated checks for many aspects of Debian
       policy as well as some checks for common errors.

       It uses an archive directory, called laboratory, in which it stores
       information about the packages it examines.  It can keep this
       information between multiple invocations in order to avoid repeating
       expensive data-collection operations.

       There are three ways to specify binary, udeb or source packages for
       Lintian to process: by file name (the .deb file for a binary package or
       the .dsc file for a source package), by naming a .changes file, or by
       using a lab query (see "LAB QUERY" below).

       If you specify a .changes file, Lintian will process all packages
       listed in that file.  This is convenient when checking a new package
       before uploading it.

       If you specify packages to be checked or use one of the options --all
       or --packages-from-file, the packages requested will be processed.
       Otherwise, if debian/changelog exists, it is parsed to determine the
       name of the .changes file to look for in the parent directory (when
       using the actions --check or --unpack).	See "CHECKING LAST BUILD" for
       more information.

OPTIONS
       Actions of the lintian command: (Only one action can be specified per
       invocation)

       -c, --check
	   Run all checks over the specified packages.	This is the default
	   action.

       -C chk1,chk2,..., --check-part chk1,chk2,...
	   Run only the specified checks.  You can either specify the name of
	   the check script or the abbreviation.  For details, see the
	   "CHECKS" section below.

       -F, --ftp-master-rejects
	   Run only the checks that issue tags that result in automatic
	   rejects from the Debian upload queue.  The list of such tags is
	   refreshed with each Lintian release, so may be slightly out of date
	   if it has changed recently.

	   This is implemented via a profile and thus this option cannot be
	   used together with --profile.

       -r, --remove
	   Removed the specified packages from the lintian lab.	 This is only
	   useful with static labs.

       -R, --remove-lab
	   Remove the laboratory directory.  This is only useful with static
	   labs.

       -S, --setup-lab
	   Set up or update a static lintian laboratory.

       -T tag1,tag2,..., --tags tag1,tag2,...
	   Run only the checks that issue the requested tags.  The tests for
	   other tags within the check scripts will be run but the tags will
	   not be issued.

	   With this options all tags listed will be displayed regardless of
	   the display settings.

       --tags-from-file filename
	   Same functionality as --tags, but read the list of tags from a
	   file.  Blank lines and lines beginning with # are ignored.  All
	   other lines are taken to be tag names or comma-separated lists of
	   tag names to (potentially) issue.

	   With this options all tags listed will be displayed regardless of
	   the display settings.

       -u, --unpack
	   Unpacks the package will all collections.  See the "COLLECTION"
	   section below.

	   Note in this option will also run all collections.  See the
	   "COLLECTION" section below.

       -X chk1,chk2,..., --dont-check-part chk1,chk2,...
	   Run all but the the specified checks.  You can either specify the
	   name of the check script or the abbreviation.  For details, see the
	   "CHECKS" section below.

       General options:

       -d, --debug
	   Display debugging messages. (Implies -v and overrules any -q).

	   Can be used multiple times to increase the debug information.  If
	   passed twice or more, Lintian will emit approximate run times for
	   collections and checks (if Time::HiRes can be loaded).

	   If passed 3 times (and if Devel::Size can be loaded), Lintian will
	   display memory usage for (some of its) data structures.  With 4
	   times, the memory usage will be more detailed.

	   This option cannot be specified in the config file.	If used on the
	   command line it will override the verbose and the quiet options in
	   the config file.

       -h, --help
	   Display usage information and exit.

       -q, --quiet
	   Suppress all informational messages including override comments
	   (normally shown with --show-overrides).

	   This option is silently ignored if --debug is given.	 Otherwise, if
	   both --verbose and --quiet is used, the last of these two options
	   take effect.

	   This option overrides the verbose and the quiet variable in the
	   configuration file.	In the configuration file, this option is
	   enabled by using quiet variable.  The verbose and quiet variables
	   may not both appear in the config file.

       -v, --verbose
	   Display verbose messages.

	   If --debug is used this option is always enabled.  Otherwise, if
	   both --verbose and --quiet is used (and --debug is not used), the
	   last of these two options take effect.

	   This option overrides the quiet variable in the configuration file.
	   In the configuration file, this option is enabled by using verbose
	   variable.  The verbose and quiet variables may not both appear in
	   the config file.

       -V, --version
	   Display lintian version number and exit.

       --print-version
	   Print unadorned version number and exit.

       Behaviour options for lintian.

       --allow-root
	   Override lintian's warning when it is run with superuser
	   privileges.

       --color (never|always|auto|html)
	   Whether to colorize tags in lintian output based on their severity.
	   The default is "never", which never uses color.  "always" will
	   always use color, "auto" will use color only if the output is going
	   to a terminal, and "html" will use HTML <span> tags with a color
	   style attribute (instead of ANSI color escape sequences).

	   This option overrides the color variable in the configuration file.

       --default-display-level
	   Reset the current display level to the default.  This option
	   behaves exactly like passing -L ">=important" -L
	   "+>=normal/possible" -L "+minor/certain" to lintian.

	   One use for this option is to override only the display settings in
	   the config file.

       --display-source X
	   Only display tags from the source X (e.g. the Policy Manual or the
	   Developer Reference).  This option can be used multiple times to
	   add additional sources.  Example sources are "policy" or "devref"
	   being the Policy Manual and the Developer Reference (respectively).

	   The entire list of sources can be found in
	   $LINTIAN_ROOT/data/output/manual-references

       -E, --display-experimental, --no-display-experimental
	   Control whether to display experimental ("X:") tags.	 They are
	   normally suppressed.

	   If a tag is marked experimental, this means that the code that
	   generates this message is not as well tested as the rest of
	   Lintian, and might still give surprising results.  Feel free to
	   ignore Experimental messages that do not seem to make sense, though
	   of course bug reports are always welcome (particularly if they
	   include fixes).

	   These options overrides the display-experimental variable in the
	   configuration file.

       --fail-on-warnings
	   By default, lintian exits with 0 status if only warnings were
	   found.  If this flag is given, exit with a status of 1 if either
	   warnings or errors are found.

	   This option overrides the fail-on-warnings variable in the
	   configuration file.

       -i, --info
	   Print explanatory information about each problem discovered in
	   addition to the lintian error tags. To print a long tag description
	   without running lintian, see lintian-info(1).

	   This option overrides info variable in the configuration file.

       -I, --display-info
	   Display informational ("I:") tags as well.  They are normally
	   suppressed.	(This is equivalent to -L ">=wishlist").

	   This option overrides the display-info variable in the
	   configuration file.

	   Note: display-level and display-info may not both appear in the
	   configuration file.

       --keep-lab
	   By default, temporary labs will be removed after lintian is
	   finished.  Specifying this options will leave the lab behind, which
	   might be useful for debugging purposes.  You can find out where the
	   temporary lab is located by running lintian with the --verbose
	   option.

	   For static (non-temporary) labs this option causes Lintian to skip
	   the automatic clean up of some collections.

       -L [+|-|=][>=|>|<|<=][S|C|S/C], --display-level
       [+|-|=][>=|>|<|<=][S|C|S/C]
	   Fine-grained selection of tags to be displayed. It is possible to
	   add, remove or set the levels to display, specifying a severity (S:
	   serious, important, normal, minor, wishlist, pedantic), a certainty
	   (C: certain, possible, wild-guess), or both (S/C).  The default
	   settings are equivalent to -L ">=important" -L "+>=normal/possible"
	   -L "+minor/certain").

	   This option overrides the display-level variable in the
	   configuration file.	The value of the display-level in
	   configuration file should be space separated entries in the same
	   format as passed via command-line.

	   Note: display-level may not be used with display-info or pedantic
	   in the configuration file.

       -o, --no-override
	   Don't use the overrides file.

	   This option overrides the override variable in the configuration
	   file.

       --pedantic
	   Display pedantic ("P:") tags as well.  They are normally
	   suppressed.	(This is equivalent to -L "+=pedantic").

	   Pedantic tags are Lintian at its most pickiest and include checks
	   for particular Debian packaging styles and checks that many people
	   disagree with.  Expect false positives and Lintian tags that you
	   don't consider useful if you use this option.  Adding overrides for
	   pedantic tags is probably not worth the effort.

	   This option overrides the pedantic variable in the configuration
	   file.

	   Note: pedantic and display-info may not both appear in the
	   configuration file.

       --profile vendor[/prof]
	   Use the profile from vendor (or the profile with that name).	 If
	   the profile name does not contain a slash, the default profile for
	   than vendor is chosen.

	   As an example, if you are on Ubuntu and want to use Lintian's
	   Debian checks, you can use:

	     --profile debian

	   Likewise, on a Debian machine you can use this to request the
	   Ubuntu checks.

	   If the token {VENDOR} appears in the profile name, lintian will
	   substitute the token with a vendor name to find the profile.
	   lintian uses Dpkg::Vendor to determine the best vendor to use (the
	   closer to the current vendor, the better).  This is mostly useful
	   for people implementing their own checks on top of Lintian.

	   If not specified, the default value is {VENDOR}/main.

	   Please Refer to the Lintian User Manual for the full documentation
	   of profiles.

       --show-overrides
	   Output tags that have been overridden.  The related override
	   comments will also be printed (unless --quiet is used).  Please
	   refer to the Lintian User Manual for the documentation on how
	   lintian relates comments to a given override.

	   This option overrides the show-overrides variable in the
	   configuration file.

       --suppress-tags tag1,tag2,...
	   Suppress the listed tags.  They will not be reported if they occur
	   and will not affect the exit status of Lintian.  This option can be
	   given multiple times and can be mixed with
	   --suppress-tags-from-file.

	   This option can be used together with --dont-check-part ("Not those
	   checks nor these tags") and --check-part ("Only those checks, but
	   not these tags (from those checks)") to further reduce the
	   selection of tags.

	   When used with --tags, this option is mostly ignored.

       --suppress-tags-from-file file
	   Suppress all tags listed in the given file.	Blank lines and lines
	   beginning with # are ignored.  All other lines are taken to be tag
	   names or comma-separated lists of tag names to suppress.  The
	   suppressed tags will not be reported if they occur and will not
	   affect the exit status of Lintian.

	   Tags parsed from the file will be handled as if they had been given
	   to the --suppress-tags option (e.g. ignored if --tags is used).

       -U info1,info2,..., --unpack-info info1,info2,...
	   Collect information info1, info2, etc. even if these are not
	   required by the checks.  Collections requested by this option are
	   also not auto-removed (in this run).

	   This option is mostly useful for debugging or special purpose
	   setups.

	   It is allowed to give this option more than once.  The following
	   two lines of arguments are semantically equivalent:

	    -U info1 -U info2
	    -U info1,info2

       Configuration options:

       --cfg configfile
	   Read the configuration from configfile rather than the default
	   locations.  This option overrides the LINTIAN_CFG environment
	   variable.

       --no-cfg
	   Do not read any configuration file.	This option overrides the
	   --cfg above.

       --ignore-lintian-env
	   Ignore all environment variables starting with LINTIAN_.

	   This option is mostly useful for applications running lintian for
	   checking packages and do not want the invoking user to affect the
	   result (by setting LINTIAN_PROFILE etc.).

	   Note it does not cause lintian to ignore the entire environment
	   like TMPDIR or DEB_VENDOR.  The latter can affect the default
	   profile (or "{VENDOR}" token for --profile).

	   Should usually be combined with --no-user-dirs (or unsetting $HOME
	   and all XDG_ variables).

       --include-dir dir
	   Use dir as an additional "LINTIAN_ROOT".  The directory is expected
	   have a similar layout to the LINTIAN_ROOT (if it exists), but does
	   not need to be a full self-contained root.

	   lintian will check this directory for (additional) profiles, data
	   files, support libraries and checks.	 The latter two implies that
	   Lintian may attempt to load and execute code from this directory.

	   This option may appear more than once; each time adding an
	   additional directory.  Directories are searched in the order they
	   appear on the command line.

	   The additional directories will be checked after the user
	   directories (though see --no-user-dirs) and before the core
	   LINTIAN_ROOT.

	   Note: This option should be the very first if given.

       -j [X], --jobs[=X]
	   Set the limit for how many unpacking jobs Lintian will run in
	   parallel.  If X is not given, Lintian will not limit the number of
	   unpacking jobs run that can run in parallel.

	   This option overrides the jobs variable in the configuration file.

	   By default Lintian will use nproc to determine a reasonable default
	   (or 2, if the nproc fails).

       --lab labdir
	   Use labdir as the permanent laboratory.  This is where Lintian
	   keeps information about the packages it checks.  This option
	   overrides the LINTIAN_LAB environment variable and the
	   configuration file entry of the same name.

       --root rootdir
	   Deprecated in 2.5.18 and will be removed in a later release.

	   This option used to control what directory was used as the
	   LINTIAN_ROOT.  It's primary purpose was to use Lintian directly
	   from a source tree.	However, since 2.5.18 Lintian has logic for
	   automatically configuring itself without any assistance making this
	   option largely obsolete.  Note if passed, then the chosen root dir
	   must match the actual LINTIAN_ROOT used by Lintian.

	   This option implies --no-user-dirs for backwards compatbility with
	   previous versions of Lintian.

       --user-dirs, --no-user-dirs
	   By default, lintian will check $HOME and /etc for files supplied by
	   the user or the local sysadmin (e.g. config files and profiles).
	   This default can be disabled (and re-enabled) by using
	   --no-user-dirs (and --user-dirs, respectively).

	   These options will not affect the inclusion of LINTIAN_ROOT, which
	   is always included.

	   These option can appear multiple times, in which case the last of
	   them to appear determines the result.

	   Note that if the intention is only to disable the user's $HOME,
	   then unsetting $HOME and XDG_*_HOME may suffice.  Alternatively,
	   /etc can be "re-added" by using --include-dir (caveat:
	   /etc/lintianrc will be ignored by this).

	   If the intention is to avoid (unintentional) side-effects from the
	   calling user, then this option could be combined with
	   --ignore-lintian-env.

	   If for some reason --no-user-dirs cannot be used, then consider
	   unsetting $HOME and all the $XDG_* variables (not just the
	   $XDG_*_HOME ones).

	   Note: This option should be the very first if given.

       Package selection options:

       -a, --all
	   Check all packages in the laboratory.

	   Note: If --binary, --udeb or --source is specified, then only
	   packages of that type is considered.

       -b, --binary
	   The lab-queries listed on the command line are by default binary
	   packages.

	   With --all this means check all binary packages in the lab.

       --packages-from-file X
	   Process the packages listed in X.  If the line starts with
	   "!query:", then the rest of that line is processed as a lab query
	   (see "LAB QUERY").

	   Otherwise the line is read as the path to a file to process (all
	   whitespace is included!).

	   If X is "-", Lintian will read the packages from STDIN.

       -s, --source
	   The lab-queries listed on the command line are by default source
	   packages.

	   With --all this means check all source packages in the lab.

	   The following packages listed on the command line are source
	   packages.

       --udeb
	   The lab-queries listed on the command line are by default udeb
	   packages.

	   With --all this means check all udeb packages in the lab.

CHECKS
       apache2 (apache2)
	   Checks various build mistakes in Apache2 reverse dependencies

       automake (autom)
	   Checks for erroneous, missing or deprecated automake files

       binaries (bin)
	   This script checks binaries and object files for bugs.

       changelog-file (chg)
	   This script checks if a binary package conforms to policy with
	   regards to changelog files.

	   Each binary package with a /usr/share/doc/<foo> directory must have
	   a Debian changelog file in changelog.Debian.gz unless the Debian
	   changelog and the upstream one is the same file; in this case, it
	   must be in changelog.gz.

	   If there is an upstream changelog file, it must be named
	   "changelog.gz".

	   Both changelog files should be compressed using "gzip -9".  Even if
	   they start out small, they will become large with time.

       changes-file (chng)
	   This script checks for various problems with .changes files

       conffiles (cnf)
	   This script checks if the conffiles control file of a binary
	   package is correct.

       control-file (dctl)
	   This script checks debian/control files in source packages

       control-files (ctl)
	   Check for unknown control files in the binary package.

       copyright-file (cpy)
	   This script checks if a binary package conforms to policy with
	   regard to copyright files.

	   Each binary package must either have a
	   /usr/share/doc/<foo>/copyright file or must have a symlink
	   /usr/share/doc/<foo> -> <bar>, where <bar> comes from the same
	   source package and pkg foo declares a "Depends" relation on bar.

       cruft (deb)
	   This looks for cruft in Debian packaging or upstream source

       deb-format (dfmt)
	   This script checks the format of the deb ar archive itself.

       debconf (dc)
	   This looks for common mistakes in packages using debconf.

       debhelper (dh)
	   This looks for common mistakes in debhelper source packages.

       debian-readme (drm)
	   This script checks the README.Debian file for various problems.

       debian-source-dir (dsd)
	   This script looks for mistakes in debian/source/* files.

       description (des)
	   Check if the Description control field of a binary package conforms
	   to the rules in the Policy Manual (section 3.4).

       duplicate-files (dupf)
	   This script checks for duplicate files using checksums

       fields (fld)
	   This script checks the syntax of the fields in package control
	   files, as described in the Policy Manual.

       filename-length (flen)
	   This script checks for long package file names

       files (fil)
	   This script checks if a binary package conforms to policy WRT to
	   files and directories.

       group-checks (gchck)
	   This script checks for some issues that may appear in packages
	   built from the same source.	This includes intra-source circular
	   dependencies and intra-source priority checks.

       huge-usr-share (hus)
	   This script checks whether an architecture-dependent package has
	   large amounts of data in /usr/share.

       infofiles (info)
	   This script checks if a binary package conforms to info document
	   policy.

       init.d (ini)
	   Check if a binary package conforms to policy with respect to
	   scripts in /etc/init.d.

       java (java)
	   This script checks if the packages comply with various aspects of
	   the debian Java policy.

       manpages (man)
	   This script checks if a binary package conforms to manual page
	   policy.

       md5sums (md5)
	   This script checks if md5sum control files are valid, if they are
	   provided by a binary package.

       menu-format (mnf)
	   This script validates the format of menu files.

       menus (men)
	   Check if a binary package conforms to policy with respect to menu
	   and doc-base files.

       nmu (nmu)
	   This script checks if a source package is consistent about its NMU-
	   ness.

       ocaml (ocaml)
	   This looks for common mistakes in OCaml binary packages.

       patch-systems (pat)
	   This script checks for various possible problems when using patch
	   systems

       phppear (phppear)
	   This script checks if the packages comply with various aspects of
	   the debian PHP policy.

       po-debconf (pd)
	   This looks for common mistakes in packages using po-debconf(7).

       rules (rul)
	   Check targets and actions in debian/rules.

       scripts (scr)
	   This script checks the #! lines of scripts in a package.

       shared-libs (shl)
	   This script checks if a binary package conforms to shared library
	   policy.

       source-copyright (scpy)
	   This script checks if a source package conforms to policy with
	   regard to copyright files.

	   Each source package should have a debian/copyright file.

       standards-version (std)
	   This script checks if a source package contains a valid Standards-
	   Version field.

       symlinks (sym)
	   This script checks for broken symlinks.

       systemd
	   Checks various systemd policy things

       testsuite
	   This script checks the Testsuite field in package dsc files, and
	   debian/tests/control if any.

       version-substvars (v-s)
	   This script checks for correct use of the various *Version
	   substvars, e.g. deprecated substvars, or usage that can cause un-
	   binNMUability

       watch-file (watch)
	   Check debian/watch files in source packages.

COLLECTION
       ar-info
	   This script runs the "ar t" command over all .a files of package.

	   This collection is auto-removed by default in static labs.

       bin-pkg-control
	   This script extracts the contents of control.tar into the control/
	   and creates control-index as well.

       changelog-file
	   This script copies the changelog file and NEWS.Debian file (if any)
	   of a package into the lintian directory.

       copyright-file
	   This script copies the copyright file of a package into the lintian
	   directory.

       debfiles
	   This script collects files shipped in the source of the package.

	   This collection is auto-removed by default in static labs.

       debian-readme
	   This script copies the README.Debian file of a package into the
	   lintian directory.

	   This collection is auto-removed by default in static labs.

       diffstat
	   This script extracts the Debian diff of a source package, and runs
	   diffstat on it, leaving the result in the diffstat output file

       doc-base-files
	   This script copies the contents of /usr/share/doc-base into the
	   lintian doc-base/ directory.

       file-info
	   This script runs the file(1) command over all files of any kind of
	   package.

       hardening-info
	   This script runs hardening-check(1) over all ELF binaries of a
	   binary package.

       index
	   This script create an index file of the contents of a package.

       init.d
	   This script copies the etc/init.d directory into the lintian
	   directory.

       java-info
	   This script extracts information from manifests of JAR files

       md5sums
	   This script runs the md5sums(1) over all files in a binary package.

       menu-files
	   This script copies the contents of /usr/lib/menu into the lintian
	   menu/ directory.

	   This collection is auto-removed by default in static labs.

       objdump-info
	   This script runs objdump(1) over all binaries and object files of a
	   binary package.

       override-file
	   This script copies the override file of a package into the lintian
	   directory.

       scripts
	   This script scans a binary package for scripts that start with #!
	   and lists their filenames together with the interpreter named by
	   their first line.

	    The format is: scriptpath filename

	   Note that the filename might contain spaces, but the scriptpath
	   will not, because linux only looks at the first word when executing
	   a script.

       src-orig-index
	   This script create an index file of the contents of the orig
	   tarballs.

       strings
	   This script runs the strings(1) command over all files of a binary
	   package.

	   This collection is auto-removed by default in static labs.

       unpacked
	   This script unpacks the package under the unpacked/ directory

	   This collection is auto-removed by default in static labs.

FILES
       Lintian looks for its configuration file in the following locations:

       ·   The argument given to --cfg

       ·   $LINTIAN_CFG

       ·   $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/lintian/lintianrc

       ·   $HOME/.lintianrc

	   Deprecated in Lintian/2.5.12 and newer (use the XDG based variant
	   above)

       ·   XGD_DIR/lintian/lintianrc

	   Where XGD_DIR is a directories listed in $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS (or
	   /etc/xdg if $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS is unset).

       ·   /etc/lintianrc

	   Deprecated in Lintian/2.5.12 and newer (use the XDG based variant
	   above)

       Lintian uses the following directories:

       /tmp
	   If no lab location is specified via the LINTIAN_LAB environment
	   variable, configuration, or the --lab command-line option, lintian
	   defaults to creating a temporary lab directory in /tmp.  To change
	   the directory used, set the TMPDIR environment variable to a
	   suitable directory.	TMPDIR can be set in the configuration file.

       /usr/share/lintian/checks
	   Scripts that check aspects of a package.

       /usr/share/lintian/collection
	   Scripts that collect information about a package and store it for
	   use by the check scripts.

       /usr/share/lintian/data
	   Supporting data used by Lintian checks and for output formatting.

       /usr/share/lintian/lib
	   Utility scripts used by the other lintian scripts.

       For binary packages, Lintian looks for overrides in a file named
       usr/share/lintian/overrides/<package> inside the binary package, where
       <package> is the name of the binary package.  For source packages,
       Lintian looks for overrides in debian/source/lintian-overrides and then
       in debian/source.lintian-overrides if the first file is not found.  The
       first path is preferred.	 See the Lintian User's Manual for the syntax
       of overrides.

CONFIGURATION FILE
       The configuration file can be used to specify default values for some
       options.	 The general format is:

	option = value

       All whitespace adjacent to the "=" sign as well as leading and trailing
       whitespace is ignored.  However whitespace within the value is
       respected, as demonstrated by this example:

	# Parsed as "opt1" with value "val1"
	   opt1	   =   val1
	# Parsed as "opt2" with value "val2.1  val2.2	  val2.3"
	opt2 = val2.1  val2.2	  val2.3

       Unless otherwise specified, no option may appear more than once.
       Lintian will ignore empty lines or lines starting with the #-character.

       Generally options will be the long form of the command-line option
       without the leading dashes.  There some exceptions (such as --profile),
       where Lintian uses the same name as the environment variable.

       Lintian only allows a subset of the options specified in the
       configuration file; please refer to the individual options in
       "OPTIONS".

       In the configuration file, all options listed must have a value, even
       if they do not accept a value on command line (e.g. --pedantic).	 The
       values "yes", "y", "1", or "true" will enable such a option and "no",
       "n", "0" or "false" will disable it.  Prior to the 2.5.2 release, these
       values were case sensitive.

       For other options, they generally take the same values as they do on
       the command line.  Though some options allow a slightly different
       format (e.g. --display-level).  These exceptions are explained for the
       relevant options in "OPTIONS".

       Beyond command line options, it is also allowed to specify the
       environment variable "TMPDIR" in the configuration file.

       A sample configuration file could look like:

	# Sample configuration file for lintian
	#
	# Set the default profile (--profile)
	LINTIAN_PROFILE = debian

	# Set the default TMPDIR for lintian to /var/tmp/lintian
	# - useful if /tmp is tmpfs with "limited" size.
	TMPDIR = /var/tmp/lintian/

	# Show info (I:) tags by default (--display-info)
	#  NB: this cannot be used with display-level
	display-info=yes

	# Ignore all overrides (--no-override)
	#  NB: called "override" in the config file
	#      and has inverted value!
	override = no

	# Automatically determine if color should be used
	color = auto

EXIT STATUS
       0   No policy violations or major errors detected.  (There may have
	   been warnings, though.)

       1   Policy violations or major errors detected.

       2   Lintian run-time error. An error message is sent to stderr.

LAB QUERY
       A lab query can be used to refer to a (set of) package(s) in the
       Lintian Laboratory.  The general format of a query is:

	[type:]package[/version[/arch]]

       Where:

       type
	   This is the type of the package and (if present) must be one of
	   "ALL", "GROUP", "binary", "udeb", "source" or "changes".  This is
	   case sensitive.

	   If omitted this defaults to "ALL" unless another default has been
	   specified (see --binary, --udeb or --source).  The pseudo type
	   "ALL" acts as a wildcard for any real package type.

	   The special type "GROUP" can be used to match all packages related
	   to a given source package.  For more info, please see "Group query"
	   below.

       package
	   This is the name of the package.  This is mandatory and must match
	   exactly.

       version
	   This is the version of the package, if left out (or if it is "_")
	   then any version will do.  Otherwise the version must match
	   exactly.

       arch
	   This is the architecture of the package, if left out (or it is "_")
	   then any architecture will do.  Otherwise the architecture must
	   match exactly.

	   Note: This is completely ignored when matching against source
	   packages or when type is "GROUP".

	   Note: For changes packages, this must match the contents of the
	   architecture field in the changes.  This field may contain a space
	   (e.g. "source all") and therefore may also need proper shell
	   escape.

   Group query
       A group query can be used to (re-)process all packages in a given
       group.  The package and version part will be used to look up one or
       more source packages.  The binaries, udebs and changes files for each
       matching source package will also be activated.

CHECKING LAST BUILD
       When run in an unpacked package dir (with no package selection
       arguments), Lintian will use debian/changelog to determine the source
       and version of the package.  Lintian will then attempt to find a
       matching .changes file for this source and version combination.

       Lintian will (in order) search the following directories:

       ..  Used by dpkg-buildpackage(1).

       ../build-area
	   Used by svn-buildpackage(1).

       /var/cache/pbuilder/result
	   Used by pbuilder(1) and cowbuilder(1).

       In each directory, Lintian will attempt to find a .changes file using
       the following values as architecture (in order):

       $DEB_BUILD_ARCH (or dpkg --print-architecture)
	   The environment variable DEB_BUILD_ARCH (if not set, "dpkg
	   --print-architecture" will be used instead)

       $DEB_HOST_ARCH
	   The environment variable DEB_HOST_ARCH.

       dpkg --print-foreign-architectures
	   If dpkg(1) appears to support multi-arch, then any architecture
	   listed by "dpkg --print-foreign-architectures" will be used (in the
	   order returned by dpkg).

       multi
	   Pseudo architecture used by mergechanges(1).

       all Used when building architecture indep packages only (e.g dpkg-
	   buildpackage -A).

       source
	   Used for "source only" builds (e.g. dpkg-buildpackage -S).

       If a .changes file matches any combination above exists, Lintian will
       process the first match as if you had passed it per command line.  If
       no .changes file can be found, Lintian will print a list of attempted
       locations on STDERR and exit 0.

EXAMPLES
       $ lintian foo.changes
	   Check the changes file itself and any (binary, udeb or source)
	   package listed in it.

       $ lintian foo.deb
	   Check binary package foo given by foo.deb.

       $ lintian foo.dsc
	   Check source package foo given by foo.dsc.

       $ lintian foo.dsc -L +minor/possible
	   Check source package foo given by foo.dsc, including minor/possible
	   tags.

       $ lintian -i foo.changes
	   Check the changes file and, if listed, the source and binary
	   package of the upload. The output will contain detailed information
	   about the reported tags.

       $ lintian -c --binary foo
	   Check the binary package foo in the Lintian laboratory.

       $ lintian -C cpy --source foo
	   Run the copyright checks on source package foo.  The package foo
	   must be in the Lintian laboratory.

       $ lintian -u foo -U unpacked
	   Unpack all packages named foo in the Lintian laboratory.

       $ lintian -r foo
	   Remove all packages named foo from the Lintian laboratory.

       $ lintian
	   Assuming debian/changelog exists, look for a changes file for the
	   source in the parent dir.  Otherwise, print usage information and
	   exit.

BUGS
       Lintian does not have any locking mechanisms yet.  (Running several
       Lintian processes on the same laboratory simultaneously is likely to
       fail or corrupt the laboratory.)

       If you discover any other bugs in lintian, please contact the authors.

SEE ALSO
       lintian-info(1), Lintian User Manual
       (file:/usr/share/doc/lintian/lintian.html/index.html)

       Packaging tools: debhelper(7), dh_make(8), dpkg-buildpackage(1).

AUTHORS
       Niels Thykier <niels@thykier.net>

       Richard Braakman <dark@xs4all.nl>

       Christian Schwarz <schwarz@monet.m.isar.de>

       Please use the email address <lintian-maint@debian.org> for Lintian
       related comments.

perl v5.18.2			  2014-03-29			    lintian(1)
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