lint(1)lint(1)NAMElint - a C program checker
SYNOPSISlint [-#] [-###] [-a] [-b] [-Cfilename] [-c] [-dirout=dir]
[-err=warn] [-errchk=l] [-errfmt=f] [-errhdr=h] [-erroff=t]
[-errsecurity=v] [-errtags=a] [-errwarn=t] [-F] [-fd]
[-flagsrc=file] [-h] [-Idir] [-k] [-Ldir] [-lx] [-m] [-m32|-m64]
[-Ncheck=c] [-Nlevel=n] [-n] [-ox] [-p] [-Rfile] [-s] [-u] [-V]
[-v] [-Wfile] [-Xarch=amd64] [-Xarch=v9] [-Xalias_level[=l]]
[-XCC=a] [-Xc99[=o]] [-Xkeeptmp=a] [-Xtemp=dir] [-Xtime=a]
[-Xtransition=a] [-Xustr={ascii_utf16_ushort|no}] [-x] [-y]
files
DESCRIPTIONlint detects features of C program files which are likely to be bugs,
non-portable, or wasteful.
lint also checks type usage more strictly than the compiler. lint
issues error and warning messages. Among the things it detects are:
· Unreachable statements
· Loops not entered at the top
· Automatic variables declared and not used
· Logical expressions whose value is constant.
lint checks for functions that return values in some places and not in
others, functions called with varying numbers or types of arguments,
and functions whose values are not used or whose values are used but
none returned.
lint can operate in two modes: basic, which is the default for the lint
program, and enhanced, which includes everything done by basic lint,
plus provides additional, detailed analysis of code.
In enhanced mode, the analysis includes:
· Structure and flow analysis of source program
· Constant propagations and constant expression evaluations
· Analysis of control flow and data flow
· Analysis of data types usages
Thus, lint can detect the following problems in enhanced mode:
· Unused #include directives, variables, and procedures
· Memory usage after its deallocation
· Unused assignments
· Usage of a variable value before its initialization
· Deallocation of non-allocated memory
· Usage of pointers when writing in constant data segment
· Non-equivalent macro redefinitions
· Unreached code
· Nonconformity of the usages of value types in unions
· Implicit casts of actual arguments.
The enhanced mode is enabled by the -Nlevel or -Ncheck options (see
descriptions below).
Arguments whose names end with .c are taken to be C source files; argu‐
ments ending in .i are taken to be preprocessor output files (produced
with the -P option to the compiler).
Arguments whose names end with .ln are taken to be the result of an
earlier invocation of lint with either the -C, -c, or the -o option
used. The .ln files are analogous to .o (object) files that are pro‐
duced by the cc(1) command when given a .c file as input. Files with
other suffixes are warned about and ignored.
In enhanced mode, lint produces .ln files which store additional infor‐
mation than .ln files produced in basic mode. In enhanced mode, lint
can read and understand all .ln files generated by either basic or
enhanced lint modes. In basic mode, lint can read and understand .ln
files generated only using basic lint mode.
lint takes all the .c, .i, .ln, and llib-lx.ln (specified by -lx) files
and processes them in their command-line order. By default, lint
appends the standard C lint library (llib-lc.ln) to the end of the list
of files. When the -C or -c option is used, the .ln and the llib-lx.ln
files are ignored. When the -C or -c option is not used, the second
pass of lint checks the .ln and the llib-lx.ln list of files for mutual
compatibility.
Any number of lint options may be used, in any order, intermixed with
file-name arguments.
User-Supplied Default Compiler Options Startup File
The default compiler options file enables the user to specify a set of
default options that are applied to all compiles, unless otherwise
overridden. For example, the file could specify that all compiles
default at -xO2, or automatically include the file setup.il.
The default options file can also be used with lint.
At startup, the compiler searches for a default options file listing
default options it should include for all compiles. The environment
variable SPRO_DEFAULTS_PATH specifies a colon-separated list of direc‐
tories to search for the the defaults file.
If the environment variable is not set, a standard set of defaults is
used. If the environment variable is set but is empty, no defaults are
used.
The defaults file name must be of the form compiler.defaults, where
compiler is one of the following: cc, c89, c99, CC, ftn, or lint. For
example, the defaults for lint would be lint.defaults
If a defaults file for the compiler is found in the directories listed
in SPRO_DEFAULTS_PATH, the compiler will read the file and process the
options prior to processing the options on the command line. The first
defaults file found will be used and the search terminated.
System administrators may create system-wide default files in Studio-
install-path/prod/etc/config. If the environment variable is set, the
installed defaults file will not be read.
The format of a defaults file is similar to the command line. Each
line of the file may contain one or more compiler options separated by
white space. Shell expansions, such as wild cards and substitutions,
will not be applied to the options in the defaults file.
The value of the SPRO_DEFAULTS_PATH and the fully expanded command line
will be displayed in the verbose output produced by options -#, -###,
and -dryrun.
Options specified by the user on the command line will usually override
options read from the defaults file. For example, if the defaults file
specifies compiling with -xO4 and the user specifies -xO2 on the com‐
mand line, -xO2 will be used.
Some options appearing in the default options file will be appended
after the options specified on the command line. These are the pre‐
processor option -I, linker options -B, -L, -R, and -l, and all file
arguments, such as source files, object files, archives, and shared
objects.
The interface stability of the default options file is uncommitted. The
order of option processing is subject to change in a future release.
OPTIONS
The lint options are:
-# Show each component as it is invoked (verbose mode).
-### Show each component as it is invoked, but, unlike the -# option,
do not actually execute.
-a Suppress complaints about assignments of long values to vari‐
ables that are not long.
-b Suppress complaints about break statements that cannot be
reached.
-Cfilename
Produce a .ln file with the file name specified by filename .
These .ln files are the product of lint's first pass only.
filename can be a complete path name.
-c Cause lint to produce a .ln file for every .c file on the com‐
mand line. These .ln files are the product of lint's first pass
only, and are not checked for inter-function compatibility.
-dirout=dir
Set a directory name where all lint output files be will be
placed. This option affects the -c option.
-err=warn
This is a macro for -errwarn=%all.
-errchk=l
Check structural arguments passed by value; Check portability to
environment for which the size of long integers and pointers is
64 bits.
The values may be a comma separated list such as -errchk=long‐
ptr64,structarg.
The default is -errchk=%none. Specifying -errchk is equivalent
to specifying -errchk=%all.
l is a comma-separated list of checks that consists of one or
more of the following:
[no%]locfmtchk
Use this option when you want lint to check printf-like
format strings during its first pass. Regardless of
whether or not you use -errchk=locfmtchk, lint always
checks for printf-like format strings in its second
pass.
[no%]parentheses
Use this option to enhance the maintainability of code.
If -errchk=parentheses returns a warning, consider using
additional parentheses to clearly signify the precedence
of operations within the code.
[no%]signext
This option produces error messages when the normal
ANSI/ISO C value-preserving rules allow the extension of
the sign of a signed-integral value in an expression of
unsigned-integral type. This option only produces error
messages when you specify -errchk=longptr64 as well.
[no%]sizematch
Warn when a larger integer is assigned to a smaller
integer. These warnings will also be issued for assign‐
ment between same size integers which differ in signed‐
ness; for example, unsigned int = signed int.
[no%]structarg
Check structural arguments passed by value and report
the cases when formal parameter type is not known.
[no%]longptr64
Check portability to environment for which the size of
long integers and pointers is 64 bits and the size of
plain integers is 32 bits. Check assignments of pointer
expressions and long integer expressions to plain inte‐
gers, even when explicit cast is used.
%all Perform all of errchk's checks.
%none Perform none of errchk's checks. This is the default.
-errfmt=f
Specify the format of lint output. f can be one of the follow‐
ing: macro, simple, src, or tab.
macro Display the source code, the line number, and the place
of the error, with macro unfolding.
simple Display the line number and the place number, in brack‐
ets, of the error, for one-line (simple) diagnostic mes‐
sages. Similar to the -s option, but includes error-
position information.
src Display the source code, the line number, and the place
of the error (no macro unfolding).
tab Display in tabular format.
The default is -errfmt = tab . Specifying -errfmt is equivalent
to specifying -errfmt = tab.
If more than one format is specified, the last format specified
is used, and lint warns about the unused formats.
-errhdr=h
Enables the reporting of certain messages for header files when
used with -Ncheck. h is a comma-separated list that consists of
one or more of the following: dir, no%dir, %all, %none, %user.
[no%]dir
Does [not] report the -Ncheck messages for header files
included from the directory dir.
%all Check all used header files.
%none Do not check header files. This is the default.
%user Check all used user header files, that is, all header
files except those in /usr/include and its subdirecto‐
ries, as well as those supplied by the compiler.
The default is -errhdr=%none. Specifying -errhdr is equivalent
to specifying -errhdr=%user.
-erroff=t
Suppress or enable lint error messages. t is a comma-separated
list that consists of one or more of the following: tag, no%tag,
%all, %none.
[no%]tag
Suppress the message specified by this tag.
%all Suppress all messages.
%none Enable all messages. This is the default.
The default is -erroff=%none. Specifying -erroff is equivalent
to specifying -erroff=%all.
-errsecurity=v
Use the -errsecurity option to check your code for security
loopholes. v must be one of the following: core, standard,
extended, or %none.
If you do not specify a setting for -errsecurity, lint sets it
to -errsecurity=%none. If you specify -errsecurity without a
flag, lint sets it to -errsecurity=standard.
core This level checks for source code constructs that are
almost always either unsafe or difficult to verify.
Checks at this level include:
o Use of variable format strings with the printf() and
scanf() family of functions
o Use of unbounded string (%s) formats in scanf() func‐
tions
o Use of functions with no safe usage: gets(),
cftime(), ascftime(), creat()
o Incorrect use of open() with O_CREAT
Consider source code that produces warnings at this
level to be a bug. The source code in question should
be changed. In all cases, straightforward safer alter‐
natives are available.
standard This level includes all checks from the core level plus
checks for constructs that may be safe, but have better
alternatives available. This level is well suited for
newly-written code. Additional checks at this level
include:
o Use of string copy functions other than strlcpy()
o Use of weak random number functions
o Use of unsafe functions to generate temporary files
o Use of fopen() to create files
o Use of functions that invoke the shell
Replace source code that produces warnings at this
level with new or significantly modified code. Balance
addressing these warnings in legacy code against the
risks of destabilizing the application.
extended This level contains the most complete set of checks,
including everything from the core and standard levels.
In addition, a number of warnings are generated about
constructs that may be unsafe in some situations. The
checks at this level are useful as an aid in reviewing
code, but need not be used as a standard with which
acceptable source code must comply. Additional checks
at this level include:
o Calls to getc() or fgetc() inside a loop
o Use of functions prone to pathname race conditions
o Use of the exec() family of functions
o Race conditions between stat() and other functions
Review source code which produces warnings at this
level to determine if the potential security issue is
present.
-errtags=a
Displays the message tag for each error message. a can be either
yes or no. The default is -errtags=no. Specifying -errtags is
equivalent to -errtags=yes.
Works with all -errfmt options.
-errwarn=t
If the indicated warning message is issued, lint exits with a
failure status. t is a comma-separated list that consists of one
or more of the following:
tag Cause lint to exit with a fatal status if the message
specified by tag is issued as a warning message. Has no
effect if tag is not issued.
no%tag Prevent lint from exiting with a fatal status if the
message specified by tag is issued only as a warning
message. Has no effect if tag is not issued. Use this
option to revert a warning message that was previously
specified by this option with tag or %all from causing
lint to exit with a fatal status when issued as a warn‐
ing message.
%all Cause lint to exit with a fatal status if any warning
messages are issued. %all can be followed by no%tag to
exempt specific warning messages from this behavior.
%none Prevents any warning messages from causing lint to exit
with a fatal status should any warning tag be issued.
This is the default.
-F Print path names of files. lint normally prints the file name
without the path.
-fd Report about old-style function definitions and declarations.
-flagsrc=file
Execute lint with options contained in the file file. Multiple
options can be specified in file, one per line.
-h Do not apply heuristic tests that attempt to intuit bugs,
improve style, and reduce waste.
-Idir Search for included header files in the directory dir before
searching the current directory and/or the standard place.
-k Alter the behavior of /∗LINTED [message]∗/ directives or
NOTE(LINTED(message)) annotations. Normally, lint suppresses
warning messages for the code following these directives.
Instead of suppressing the messages, lint prints an additional
message containing the comment inside the directive or annota‐
tion.
-Ldir Search for lint libraries in dir before searching the standard
place.
-lx Include the lint library llib-lx.ln. For example, you can
include a lint version of the math library llib-lm.ln by insert‐
ing -lm on the command line. This argument does not suppress
the default use of llib-lc.ln. These lint libraries must be in
the assumed directory. This option can be used to reference
local lint libraries and is useful in the development of multi-
file projects.
-m Suppress complaints about external symbols that could be
declared static.
-m32|-m64
Specifies the memory model for the program being analyzed. Also
searches for lint libraries that correspond to the selected mem‐
ory model (32-bit/64-bit).
Use -m32 to verify 32-bit C programs and -m64 to verify 64-bit C
programs.
The ILP32 memory model (32-bit int, long, pointer data types) is
the default on all Oracle Solaris platforms and on Linux plat‐
forms that are not 64-bit enabled. The LP64 memory model (64-bit
long, pointer data types) is the default on Linux platforms that
are 64-bit enabled. -m64 is permitted only on platforms that are
enabled for the LP64 model.
Note that in previous compiler releases, the memory model, ILP32
or LP64, was implied by the choice of the -Xarch flag. Starting
with the Sun Studio 12 compilers, this is no longer the case. On
most platforms, just adding -m64 to the command line is suffi‐
cient for linting 64-bit programs.
See the sections following this list of lint options for more
information on the predefined macroes. See also -Xarch.
-Ncheck=c
Check header files for corresponding declarations; check macros.
c is a comma-separated list of checks that consists of one or
more of the following:
macro Check for consistency of macro definitions across files.
extern Check for one-to-one correspondence of declarations
between source files and their associated header files
(for example, for file1.c and file1.h). Ensure that
there are neither extraneous nor missing extern declara‐
tions in a header file.
%all Perform all of Ncheck's checks.
%none Perform none of Ncheck's checks. This is the default.
no%macro
Perform none of Ncheck's macro checks.
no%extern
Perform none of Ncheck's extern checks.
The values may be combined with a comma, for example,
-Ncheck=extern,macro.
The default is -Ncheck=%none. Specifying -Ncheck is equivalent
to specifying -Ncheck=%all.
-Nlevel=n
Turns on enhanced lint mode by specifying the level of enhanced
lint analysis for reporting problems. This option allows you to
control the amount of detected errors. The higher the level, the
longer the verification time. n is a number: 1, 2, 3, or 4.
There is no default. If you do not specify -Nlevel, lint uses
its basic analysis mode. If you specify -Nlevel without an
argument, lint sets -Nlevel=4.
See the beginning of this man page or the C User's Guide for an
explanation of the basic and enhanced lint analysis modes.
-Nlevel=1 Analyze single procedures. Report unconditional errors
that occur on some program execution paths. Does not do global
data and control flow analysis.
-Nlevel=2 The default. Analyze the whole program, including
global data and control flow. Report unconditional errors that
occur on some program execution paths.
-Nlevel=3 Analyze the whole program, including constant propaga‐
tion, cases when constants are used as actual arguments, as well
as the analysis performed under -Nlevel=2.
Verification of a C program at this analysis level takes two to
four times longer then at the preceding level. The extra time is
required because lint assumes partial interpretation of the pro‐
gram by creating sets of possible values for program variables.
These sets of variables are created on the basis of constants
and conditional statements that contain constant operands avail‐
able in the program. The sets form the basis for creating other
sets (a form of constant propagation). Sets received as the
result of the analysis are evaluated for correctness according
to the following algorithm:
If a correct value exists among all possible values of an
object, then that correct value is used as the basis for further
propagation; otherwise an error is diagnosed.
-Nlevel=4 Analyze the whole program, and report conditional
errors that could occur when certain program execution paths are
used, as well as the analysis performed under -Nlevel=3.
At this level, there are additional diagnostic messages. The
analysis algorithm generally corresponds to the analysis algo‐
rithm of -Nlevel=3 with the exception that any invalid values
now generate an error message. The amount of time required for
analysis at this level can increase as much as two orders (about
20 to 100 times more slowly). In this case, the extra time
required is directly proportional to the program complexity as
characterised by recursion, conditional statements etc. As a
result of this, it may be difficult to use this level of analy‐
sis for a program that exceeds 100,000 lines.
-n Do not check compatibility against the standard C lint library.
-ox Cause lint to create a lint library with the name llib-lx.ln.
This library is created from all the .ln files that lint used in
its second pass. The -c option nullifies any use of the -o
option. To produce a llib-lx.ln without extraneous messages,
you can use the -x option. The -v option is useful if the source
file(s) for the lint library are just external interfaces. The
lint library produced can be used later if lint is invoked with
the -lx option.
By default, you create libraries in lint's basic format. If you
use lint's enhanced mode, the library created will be in
enhanced format, and can only be used in enhanced mode.
-p Attempt to check portability to other dialects of C. Along with
stricter checking, this option causes all non-external names to
be truncated to eight characters and all external names to be
truncated to six characters and one case.
-Rfile Write a .ln file to file, for use by cxref(1). This option dis‐
ables the enhanced mode, if it is switched on.
-s Produce simple diagnostics with "warning:" or "error:" prefixes.
By default lint buffers some messages to produce compound out‐
put.
-u Suppress complaints about functions and external variables used
and not defined, or defined and not used. This option is suit‐
able for running lint on a subset of files of a larger program.
-V Write to standard error the product name and release.
-v Suppress complaints about unused arguments in functions.
-Wfile Write a .ln file to file, for use by cflow(1). This option dis‐
ables the enhanced mode, if it is switched on.
-Xalias_level[=l]
where l is one of any, basic, weak, layout, strict, std, or
strong. See the C User's Guide for more information.
If you do not specify -Xalias_level, the default of the flag is
-Xalias_level=any. This means that there is no type-based alias-
analysis. If you specify -Xalias_level but do not supply a
level, the default is -Xalias_level=layout.
Be sure to run lint at a level of disambiguation that is no more
strict than the level at which you ran the compiler. If you run
lint at a level of disambiguation that is more strict than the
level at which you compiled, the results will be difficult to
interpret and possibly misleading.
-Xarch=amd64
Deprecated. Do not use. See -m32|-m64.
-Xarch=v9
Deprecated. Do not use. See -m32|-m64.
-XCC=a Accept C++-style comments. a can be either yes or no. In par‐
ticular, / can be used to indicate the start of a comment. The
default is -XCC=no; specifying -XCC is equivalent to specifying
-XCC=yes.
Note:
You only need to use this option if you use -xc99=%none. Under
-xc99=%all (the default), lint accepts comments which are indi‐
cated by //.
-Xc99=o
The -Xc99 flag controls compiler recognition of the implemented
features from the C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999, Programming
Language - C).
o can be one of the following: all, none.
-Xc99=none turns off recognition of C99 features. -Xc99=all
turns on recognition of supported C99 features. Specifying -Xc99
without any arguments is the same as -Xc99=all.
Note:
Though the compiler support-level defaults to the language fea‐
tures of the C99 standard, the standard headers provided by
Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 software in /usr/include do not conform
with the 1999 ISO/IEC C standard. If you encounter error mes‐
sages, try using -Xc99=none to obtain the 1990 ISO/IEC C stan‐
dard behavior for these headers.
-Xkeeptmp=a
Keep temporary files created during linting instead of deleting
them automatically. a can be either yes or no. The default is
-Xkeeptmp=no; specifying -Xkeeptmp is equivalent to specifying
-Xkeeptmp=yes.
-Xtemp=dir
Set the directory for temporary files to dir. Without this
option, temporary files go into /tmp.
-Xtime=a
Report the execution time for each lint pass. a can be either
yes or no. The default is -Xtime=no; specifying -Xtime is equiv‐
alent to specifying -Xtime=yes.
-Xtransition=a
Issue warnings for the differences between K&R C and Sun ANSI C.
a can be either yes or no. The default is -Xtransition=no;
specifying -Xtransition is equivalent to specifying -Xtransi‐
tion=yes.
-Xustr={ascii_utf16_ushort|no}
This option enables recognition of string literals of the form
U"ASCII_string" as an array of unsigned short int. Since such
strings are not yet part of any standard, this option enables
recognition of non-standard C.
You can turn off lint recognition of U"ASCII_string" string lit‐
erals by specifying -Xustr=no. The rightmost instance of this
option on the command line overrides all previous instances.
The default is -Xustr=no. If you specify -Xustr without an argu‐
ment, the compiler won't accept it and instead issues a warning.
The default can change if the C or C++ standards define a mean‐
ing for the syntax.
You can specify -Xustr=ascii_ustf16_ushort without also specify‐
ing a U"ASCII_string" string literal. It is not an error to do
so.
See the explanation for -xustr in the cc(1) man page for a code
example that shows a string prepended by U.
-x Do not report variables referred to by external declarations but
never used.
-y Specify that the file being linted be treated as if the
/∗LINTLIBRARY∗/ directive or the NOTE(LINTLIBRARY) annotation
had been used. A lint library is normally created by using the
/∗LINTLIBRARY∗/ directive or the NOTE(LINTLIBRARY) annotation.
lint recognizes many cc (1) command-line options, including -A, -D,
-E, -g, -H, -O, -P, -U, -Xa, -Xc, -Xs, -Xt , and -Y , although -g and
-O are ignored. Unrecognized options are warned about and ignored.
The predefined macro lint is defined to allow certain questionable code
to be altered or removed for lint. Thus, the symbol lint should be
thought of as a reserved word for all code that is planned to be
checked by lint.
lint provides the following predefinition predicate by default (not
valid in -Xc mode):
#assert lint (on)
The lint token is predefined, along with those listed in the cc(1) man
page.
Certain conventional comments in the C source change the behavior of
lint:
/∗ARGSUSEDn∗/
makes lint check only the first n arguments for usage; a
missing n is taken to be 0 (this directive acts like the
-v option for the next function).
/∗CONSTCOND∗/ or /∗CONSTANTCONDITION∗/
suppresses complaints about constant operands for the
conditional expression.
/∗EMPTY∗/
suppresses complaints about a null statement consequent
on an if statement. This directive should be placed
after the test expression, and before the semicolon.
This directive is supplied to support empty if statements
when a valid else statement follows. It suppresses mes‐
sages on an empty else consequent.
/∗FALLTHRU∗/ or /∗FALLTHROUGH∗/
suppresses complaints about fall through to a case or
default labelled statement. This directive should be
placed immediately preceding the label.
/∗LINTED [message]\(**/
suppresses any intra-file warning except those dealing
with unused variables or functions. This directive
should be placed on the line immediately preceding where
the lint warning occurred. The -k option alters the way
in which lint handles this directive. Instead of sup‐
pressing messages, lint prints an additional message, if
any, contained in the comment. This directive is useful
in conjunction with the -s option for post-lint filter‐
ing.
/∗LINTLIBRARY∗/
when -o is invoked, writes to a library .ln file only
definitions in the .c file it heads. This directive sup‐
presses complaints about unused functions and function
arguments in this file.
/∗NOTREACHED∗/
at appropriate points stops comments about unreachable
code. [This comment is typically placed just after calls
to functions like exit(2)].
/∗PRINTFLIKEn∗/
makes lint check the first (n-1) arguments as usual. The
nth argument is interpreted as a printf format string
that is used to check the remaining arguments.
/∗PROTOLIBn∗/
causes lint to treat function declaration prototypes as
function definitions if n is non-zero. This directive
can only be used in conjunction with the /∗ LINTLIBRARY
∗/ directive. If n is zero, function prototypes are
treated normally.
/∗SCANFLIKEn∗/
makes lint check the first (n-1) arguments as usual. The
nth argument is interpreted as a scanf format string that
is used to check the remaining arguments.
/∗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 miss‐
ing n is taken to be 0. The use of the ellipsis termina‐
tor (...) in the definition is suggested in new or
updated code.
lint directives can also be specified in the form of source code anno‐
tations, by including the file note.h, for example:
#include <note.h>
NOTE(ARGSUSED(n))
NOTE(CONSTANTCONDITION)NOTE(EMPTY)NOTE(FALLTHROUGH)NOTE(LINTLIBRARY)
NOTE(LINTED(message))
NOTE(NOTREACHED)
NOTE(PRINTFLIKE(n))
NOTE(PRINTFLIKE(func_name,n))
NOTE(PROTOLIB(n))
NOTE(SCANFLIKE(n))
NOTE(SCANFLIKE(func_name,n))
NOTE(VARARGS(n))
NOTE(VARARGS(func_name,n))
The following two directives can be used only as annotations:
NOTE(ALIGNMENT(func_name,n))
where n=1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128;
makes lint set following function result alignment in n bytes.
For example, malloc() is defined as returning a char∗ or void∗
when in fact it really returns pointers that are word (or even
doubleword) aligned.
NOTE(ARGUNUSED(par_name[,par_name...]))
makes lint not check the mentioned arguments for usage (this
option acts only for the next function).
lint can, with certain options, show precise source file lines with
pointers to the line position where the error occurred. The option
enabling this feature is
-errfmt=[macro|simple|src|tab]. Under this option, lint provides the
following information:
· Source line(s) and position(s)
· Macro unfolding
· Error-prone stack(s)lint produces its first output on a per-source-file basis. Complaints
regarding included files are collected and printed after all source
files have been processed, if -s is not specified. Finally, if the -C
or -c option is not used, 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 printed followed by a ques‐
tion mark.
The behavior of the -C, -c, and the -o options allows for incremental
use of lint on a set of C source files. Generally, one invokes lint
once for each source file with the -C or -c option. Each of these
invocations produces a .ln file that corresponds to the .c file, and
prints all messages that are about just that source file. After all
the source files have been separately run through lint, it is invoked
once more (without the -C or -c option), listing all the .ln files with
the needed -lx options. This prints all the inter-file inconsisten‐
cies. This scheme works well with make; it allows make to be used to
lint only the source files that have been modified since the last time
the set of source files were linted.
ENVIRONMENT
LINT_OPTIONS A default set of options to lint.
LINT_OPTIONS is interpreted by lint as if its
value had been placed on the command line,
immediately following the name used to invoke
lint, as in:
lint $LINT_OPTIONS ... other-arguments ...
TMPDIR usually /tmp but can be redefined by setting
the environment variable TMPDIR [see tempnam in
tmpnam(3S)].
NOTEPATH Colon separated paths of directories containing
note definition files (see C User's Guide)
FILES
lint[12] first and second passes
lint2n enhanced second pass
llib-lc.ln declarations for C Library functions (binary
format)
TMPDIR/∗lint∗ temporaries
SEE ALSOcc(1), make(1s), cflow(1), cxref(1).
See the lint chapter in the C User's Guide.
2011/08/16 lint(1)
