NAME
lintian - Debian package checker
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)
-S, --setup-lab
Set up or update the laboratory.
-R, --remove-lab
Remove the laboratory directory.
-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.
-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.
-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refreshed with each Lintian release, so may be slightly out of
date if it has changed recently.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.
-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.
-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.
-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.
General options:
-h, --help
Display usage information and exit.
-V, --version
Display lintian version number and exit.
--print-version
Print unadorned version number and exit.
-v, --verbose
Display verbose messages.
-d, --debug
Display debugging messages. (Implies -v).
-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.
Behaviour options for lintian.
-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").
-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).
--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.
-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).
--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.
-l n, --unpack-level n
Set unpack level to n. See the UNPACK LEVELS section, below.
-o, --no-override
Don't use the overrides file.
--show-overrides
Output tags that have been overridden.
--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).
-U info1,info2,..., --unpack-info info1,info2,...
Collect information info1, info2, etc. even if these are not
required by the checks.
-m, --md5sums, --checksums
Check checksums when processing a .changes file. Normally,
Lintian only checks the checksums for .dsc files when processing
a .changes file.
--allow-root
Override lintian's warning when it is run with superuser
privileges.
--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.
--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. Implies --unpack-level=2 unless another
unpack level is specified directly.
Configuration options:
--cfg configfile
Read the configuration from configfile rather than the default
locations. This option overrides the LINTIAN_CFG environment
variable.
--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.
--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.
--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.
--area area
When scanning for packages in the distdir, select only packages
from the comma-separated list of archive areas areas (e.g. main,
contrib). This option overrides the LINTIAN_AREA 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.
--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.
--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.
-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.
-p, --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).
UNPACK LEVELS
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)
Search for bugs in binaries and object files.
changelog-file (chg)
Check changelog files in a binary package.
changes-file (chng)
Check for various issues with .changes files.
conffiles (cnf)
Check 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)
Check if a binary package conforms to policy with respect to the
copyright file. Each binary package must either have a
/usr/share/doc/package/copyright file or must have a symlink
/usr/share/doc/package->foo, where foo comes from the same
source package, and this package declares a "Depends" relation
on foo.
cruft (deb)
Looks for cruft in source packages, like files of version
control systems and temporary files from the build process.
deb-format (dfmt)
Checks the format of the binary package ar archive.
debconf (dc)
Looks for common mistakes in packages using debconf, like
missing dependencies or errors in the template file.
debhelper (dh)
Looks for common mistakes in source packages using debhelper.
debian-readme (drm)
Check if the README.Debian file is merely the debmake template.
debian-source-dir (dsd)
Check the debian/source/* control files in source packages for
errors.
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)
Check control fields of a binary or source package.
files (fil)
Check if a binary package conforms to policy with respect to
types, permissions and ownerships of files and directories.
huge-usr-share (hus)
Checks whether an architecture-dependent package does have a
significantly big /usr/share. Big amounts of architecture
independent data in architecture dependent packages waste space
on the mirrors.
infofiles (info)
Check if a binary package conforms to policy with respect to
info documents.
init.d (ini)
Check if a binary package conforms to policy with respect to
scripts in /etc/init.d.
manpages (man)
Check if a binary package conforms to policy with respect to
manual pages.
md5sums (md5)
If the md5sum control file of a binary package exists, check if
it is valid.
menus (men)
Check if a binary package conforms to policy with respect to
menu and doc-base files.
menu-format (mnf)
Check the syntax of menu files installed by the package.
nmu (nmu)
Checks whether the package is consistent as to whether it is an
NMU.
ocaml (ocaml)
Checks various things related to packaging of OCaml libraries
and other software.
patch-systems (pat)
Check source package use of patch systems.
po-debconf (pd)
Looks for common mistakes in packages using po-debconf.
rules (rul)
Looks for common problems in the debian/rules file in source
packages.
scripts (scr)
Check the the #! lines of scripts in a binary package.
shared-libs (shl)
Check if a binary package conforms to policy with respect to
shared libraries and the shlibs control file.
standards-version (std)
Check if a source package contains a valid Standards-Version
field in its debian/control file.
version-substvars (v-s)
Check use of version substvars in a source package, particularly
whether the relationships between packages allow safe binary
NMUs.
watch-file (watch)
Check debian/watch files in source packages.
COLLECTION
ar-info
Collects the results of "ar t" command for all *.a files in the
package.
changelog-file
Copy the changelog file of a package into the lintian directory.
copyright-file
Copy the copyright file of a package into the lintian directory.
debfiles
Collects files shipped in the source of the package.
debian-readme
Copy the README.Debian file of a package into the lintian
directory.
diffstat
Collect the output of the diffstat(1) utility for the Debian
diff in a source package.
doc-base-files
Copy the contents of /usr/share/doc-base into the lintian
directory (below doc-base).
file-info
Collect the output of the file(1) utility for each file in a
binary, udeb, and source package.
init.d Copy /etc/init.d scripts into the lintian directory (below
init.d).
md5sums
Collect the md5sums of all files in a binary package.
menu-files
Copy the contents of a binary package's usr/share/doc/menu
directory into the menu directory in the lab.
objdump-info
Collect the output of the objdump(1) utility for each file in a
binary package.
override-file
Copy the override file of a package into the lintian directory
scripts
Collect information about scripts in binary package.
source-control-file
Collects information about binary packages from debian/control
in source packages
strings
Collect the output of the strings(1) utility for each non-debug
ELF object in a binary package.
unpacked
Unpack the contents of a source or binary package.
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, andarch as
follows:
archivedir/dists/distdir/release/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.
USAGE
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's Manual
(file:/usr/share/doc/lintian/lintian.html/index.html)
Packaging tools: debhelper(7), dh_make(8), dpkg-buildpackage(1)
AUTHORS
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.