Intel XENIX 286 Programmers Guide (86) - Tenox.tc

Programming Commands XENIX Programming
lint - Checks C language usage and syntax.
Syntax
lint [-abchlnpuvx] file ...
Description
lint attempts to detect features of the C program file that are likely to be bugs or to be
nonportable or wasteful. It also checks type usage more strictly than the compilers.
Among the items 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 that 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 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 and in any order. The following options 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 that are used and
not defined or that are 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 functions.
-x Does not report variables referred to by external declarations but never used.
B-80