LINT

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

By default, it is assumed that all the files are to be loaded together; they are checked for mutual compatibility. Function definitions for certain libraries are available to lint; these libraries are referred to by a conventional name, such as `-lm', in the style of ld(1). Arguments ending in .ln are also treated as library files. To create lint libraries, use the -C option:

lint -Cfoo files . . .

where files are the C sources of library foo. The result is a file llib-lfoo.ln in the correct library format suitable for linting programs using foo.

Any number of the options in the following list may be used. The -D, -U, and -I options of cc(1) are also recognized as separate arguments.

-a

Report assignments of long values to int variables.

-b

Report break statements that cannot be reached. (This is not the default because, unfortunately, most lex and many yacc outputs produce dozens of such comments.)

-c

Complain about casts which have questionable portability.

-h

Apply a number of heuristic tests to attempt to intuit bugs, improve style, and reduce waste.

-mtarget

This switch is passed to the C preprocessor, and ensures that machine-dependent include files for machine target are used.

-M

Do not complain about multiply-defined procedures. This switch is useful, for example, when linting a library against its own lint library generated with -C.

-n

Do not check compatibility against the standard library.

-p

Attempt to check portability to the IBM and GCOS dialects of C.

-S

Apply stricter Sprite coding standards. With this option, ``++'' and ``--'' are disallowed as side effects inside other expressions, assignment is not permitted inside if conditionals, and the bodies of ifs and other compound statements must be enclosed in braces.

-u

Do not complain about functions and variables used and not defined, or defined and not used (this is suitable for running lint on a subset of files out of a larger program).

-v

Suppress complaints about unused arguments in functions.

-x

Report variables referred to by extern declarations, but never used.

-z

Do not complain about structures that are never defined (e.g. using a structure pointer without knowing its contents.).

Exit(2) and other functions which do not return are not understood; this causes various lies.

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.

/*NOSTRICT*/

shuts off strict type checking in the next expression.

/*ARGSUSED*/

turns on the -v option for the next function.

/*LINTLIBRARY*/

at the beginning of a file shuts off complaints about unused functions in this file.

AUTHOR

FILES

SEE ALSO

BUGS

/*NOSTRICT*/ is not implemented in the current version (alas).

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

AUTHOR

FILES

SEE ALSO

BUGS