Provided by:
lintian_2.5.0~rc2ubuntu3_all 
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 package name, or by naming a
.changes file. If you list packages by package name, you'll have to
define the LINTIAN_DIST variable in the configuration file (see below).
Lintian will then search for any binary or source packages in this
directory for packages with the given name. (You can use the -b
(--binary), --udeb and -s (--source) options if you only want to
process binary, udeb or source packages.)
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.
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refreshed with each Lintian release, so may be slightly out of date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 option does not, as yet, ignore
overrides for fatal tags for which overrides aren't allowed.
-r, --remove
Clean up the lintian directory of the specified packages up to the
current unpack level. The default unpack level is 0 for this
option.
-R, --remove-lab
Remove the laboratory directory.
-S, --setup-lab
Set up or update the 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.
--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.
-u, --unpack
Unpack the specified packages up to the current unpack level. The
default and only unpack level is 1 for this option. See the
"UNPACK LEVELS" 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).
-h, --help
Display usage information and exit.
-q, --quiet
Suppress all informational messages. Currently, the only message
this suppresses is the message at the end of the run giving the
total count of overrides.
-v, --verbose
Display verbose messages.
-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).
--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
Display experimental ("X:") tags as well. 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 welcomed (particularly if they
include fixes).
--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.
-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).
-I, --display-info
Display informational ("I:") tags as well. They are normally
suppressed. (This is equivalent to -L ">=wishlist").
--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 automatical clean up of some collections.
-l n, --unpack-level n
Set unpack level to n. See the "UNPACK LEVELS" section, below.
Note that the UNPACK LEVEL system is deprecated in favour of the
"COLLECTION" system.
-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), 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).
-m, --md5sums, --checksums
Check checksums when processing a .changes file. Normally, Lintian
only checks the checksums for .dsc files when processing a .changes
file.
-o, --no-override
Don't use the overrides file.
--pedantic
Display pedantic ("P:") tags as well. They are normally
suppressed.
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.
--show-overrides
Output tags that have been overridden.
--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.
--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.
-U info1,info2,..., --unpack-info info1,info2,...
Collect information info1, info2, etc. even if these are not
required by the checks.
Configuration options:
--arch arch
When scanning for packages in the distdir, select only packages for
architecture arch. This option overrides the LINTIAN_ARCH
environment variable and the configuration file entry of the same
name.
--area area
When scanning for packages in the distdir, select only packages
from the comma-separated list of archive areas (e.g. main,
contrib). This option overrides the LINTIAN_AREA environment
variable and the configuration file entry of the same name.
--archivedir archivedir
Location of Debian archive to scan for packages. (See the "FILES"
section for complete information on how the path is constructed.)
Use this if you want Lintian to check the whole Debian archive
instead of just single packages. This option overrides the
LINTIAN_ARCHIVEDIR environment variable and the configuration file
entry of the same name.
--cfg configfile
Read the configuration from configfile rather than the default
locations. This option overrides the LINTIAN_CFG environment
variable.
--dist distdir
Scan for packages in the distdir directory. (See the "FILES"
section for complete information on how the path is constructed.)
Use this if you want Lintian to check the whole Debian archive
instead of just single packages. This option overrides the
LINTIAN_DIST environment variable and the configuration file entry
of the same name.
--section area
This is an old name for the --area option and accepted as a synonym
for that option.
--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
Look for lintian's support files (such as check scripts and
collection scripts) in rootdir. This overrides the LINTIAN_ROOT
environment variable. The default location is /usr/share/lintian.
Package selection options:
-a, --all
Check all packages in the distribution. (This requires that the
LINTIAN_DIST variable is defined in the configuration file.)
-b, --binary
The following packages listed on the command line are binary
packages.
-p X, --packages-file X
Process all packages which are listed in file X. Each package has
to be listed in a single line using the following format:
type package version file
where type is either `b', `u', or `s' (binary, udeb, or source
package), package is the package name, version is the package's
version, and file is the package file name (absolute path
specification).
-s, --source
The following packages listed on the command line are source
packages.
--udeb
The following packages listed on the command line are udeb
packages.
UNPACK LEVELS
Note that the UNPACK LEVEL system is deprecated in favour of the
"COLLECTION" system.
0 (none)
The package does not exist in the laboratory at all.
1 (basic)
A directory for this package exists in the laboratory and basic
information is extracted. This does not take much space.
For binary and udeb packages, the control and fields directories
and the index file are unpacked, and symbolic links are made to the
.deb file and to the lintian directory for the source package.
For source packages, the binary and fields directories are
unpacked, and symbolic links are made to the source package files.
2 (contents)
This unpack level is deprecated and no longer functional. The
unpacked collection script replaced it.
Lintian will unpack packages as far as is necessary to do its checks,
but it will leave the package in whatever unpack level was specified
when it is done.
The default unpack level can be overwritten by setting the
LINTIAN_UNPACK_LEVEL variable in the configuration file.
CHECKS
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).
etcfiles (etc)
Checks if all files in /etc that are shipped with the package are
marked as conffiles as required by policy.
fields (fld)
This script checks the syntax of the fields in package control
files, as described in the Policy Manual.
files (fil)
This script checks if a binary package conforms to policy WRT to
files and directories.
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.
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
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.
standards-version (std)
This script checks if a source package contains a valid Standards-
Version field.
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.
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.
debian-readme
This script copies the README.Debian file of a package into the
lintian directory.
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.
init.d
This script copies the etc/init.d directory into the lintian
directory.
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.
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.
source-control-file
Collects information about binary packages from debian/control in
source packages
strings
This script runs the strings(1) command over all files of a binary
package.
unpacked
This script unpacks the package under the unpacked/ directory
FILES
Lintian looks for its configuration file in the following locations:
The directory given with the --cfg option
$LINTIAN_CFG
$LINTIAN_ROOT/lintianrc
$HOME/.lintianrc
/etc/lintianrc
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.
/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.
/usr/share/lintian/unpack
Scripts that manage the laboratory.
The /usr/share/lintian directory can be overridden with the
LINTIAN_ROOT environment variable or the --root option.
When looking for packages in a Debian archive, lintian constructs the
path to the archive from the archivedir, distdir, release, and arch as
follows:
I<archivedir>/dists/I<distdir>/I<release>/I<arch>
Lintian always expects the "/dists/" path component in paths to Debian
archives.
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.
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.
EXAMPLES
$ 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 foo
Search for package foo in the Debian archive and check it.
(Depending on what is found, this command will check either the
source or binary package foo, or both.)
$ lintian --archivedir /var/packages --dist custom --section main
Check all packages found in the Debian archive at
/var/packages/dists/custom/main.
$ 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
Search for binary package foo in the Debian archive and check it.
$ lintian -C cpy --source foo
Run the copyright checks on source package foo.
$ lintian -u foo
Unpack package foo in the Lintian laboratory up to level 1. (If
it's already unpacked at level 1 or 2, nothing is done.)
$ lintian -l1 -r foo
Search for package foo in the Debian archive and, if found, reduce
the package disk usage in the laboratory to level 1.
$ lintian -r foo
Remove package foo from the Lintian laboratory.
BUGS
Lintian does not have any locking mechanisms yet. (Running several
checks simultaneously is likely to fail.)
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.