usr/man/cat1/lint.0



LINT(1)             UNIX Programmer's Manual              LINT(1)


N\bNA\bAM\bME\bE
     lint - a C program verifier

S\bSY\bYN\bNO\bOP\bPS\bSI\bIS\bS
     l\bli\bin\bnt\bt [ -\b-a\bab\bbc\bch\bhn\bnp\bpu\buv\bvx\bx ] file ...

D\bDE\bES\bSC\bCR\bRI\bIP\bPT\bTI\bIO\bON\bN
     _\bL_\bi_\bn_\bt attempts to detect features of the C program _\bf_\bi_\bl_\be_\bs
     which are likely to be bugs, or non-portable, or wasteful.
     It also checks the type usage of the program more strictly
     than the compilers.  Among the things which are currently
     found 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.

     By default, it is assumed that all the _\bf_\bi_\bl_\be_\bs are to be
     loaded together; they are checked for mutual compatibility.
     Function definitions for certain libraries are available to
     _\bl_\bi_\bn_\bt; these libraries are referred to by a conventional
     name, such as `-lm', in the style of _\bl_\bd(1).  Arguments end-
     ing in ._\bl_\bn are also treated as library files.  To create
     lint libraries, use the -\b-C\bC option:

          lint -Cfoo files . . .

     where _\bf_\bi_\bl_\be_\bs are the C sources of library _\bf_\bo_\bo. The result is
     a file _\bl_\bl_\bi_\bb-_\bl_\bf_\bo_\bo._\bl_\bn in the correct library format suitable
     for linting programs using _\bf_\bo_\bo.

     Any number of the options in the following list may be used.
     The -\b-D\bD, -\b-U\bU, and -\b-I\bI options of _\bc_\bc(1) are also recognized as
     separate arguments.

     p\bp          Attempt to check portability to the _\bI_\bB_\bM and _\bG_\bC_\bO_\bS
          dialects of C.

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

     b\bb          Report _\bb_\br_\be_\ba_\bk statements that cannot be reached.  (This
          is not the default because, unfortunately, most _\bl_\be_\bx and
          many _\by_\ba_\bc_\bc outputs produce dozens of such comments.)

     v\bv          Suppress complaints about unused arguments in func-
          tions.

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


Printed 7/9/88           March 17, 1986                         1


LINT(1)             UNIX Programmer's Manual              LINT(1)


     a\ba          Report assignments of long values to int variables.

     c\bc          Complain about casts which have questionable portabil-
          ity.

     u\bu          Do not complain about functions and variables used and
          not defined, or defined and not used (this is suitable
          for running _\bl_\bi_\bn_\bt on a subset of files out of a larger
          program).

     n\bn          Do not check compatibility against the standard
          library.

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

     _\bE_\bx_\bi_\bt(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 _\bl_\bi_\bn_\bt:

     /*NOTREACHED*/
          at appropriate points stops comments about unreachable
          code.

     /*VARARGS_\bn*/
          suppresses the usual checking for variable numbers of
          arguments in the following function declaration.  The
          data types of the first _\bn arguments are checked; a
          missing _\bn is taken to be 0.

     /*NOSTRICT*/
          shuts off strict type checking in the next expression.

     /*ARGSUSED*/
          turns on the -\b-v\bv option for the next function.

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

A\bAU\bUT\bTH\bHO\bOR\bR
     S.C. Johnson.  Lint library construction implemented by
     Edward Wang.

F\bFI\bIL\bLE\bES\bS
     /usr/lib/lint/lint[12]      programs
     /usr/lib/lint/llib-lc.ln    declarations for standard func-
     tions
     /usr/lib/lint/llib-lc       human readable version of above


Printed 7/9/88           March 17, 1986                         2


LINT(1)             UNIX Programmer's Manual              LINT(1)


     /usr/lib/lint/llib-port.ln  declarations for portable func-
     tions
     /usr/lib/lint/llib-port     human readable . . .
     llib-l*.ln                  library created with -\b-C\bC

S\bSE\bEE\bE A\bAL\bLS\bSO\bO
     cc(1)
     S. C. Johnson, _\bL_\bi_\bn_\bt, _\ba _\bC _\bP_\br_\bo_\bg_\br_\ba_\bm _\bC_\bh_\be_\bc_\bk_\be_\br

B\bBU\bUG\bGS\bS
     There are some things you just c\bca\ban\bn'\b't\bt get lint to shut up
     about.

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


Printed 7/9/88           March 17, 1986                         3