dricejb@drilex.UUCP (Craig Jackson drilex1) (03/07/90)
I have a question for Unix vendors out there. Is your lint maintained? By this, has your lint received any improvements other than emergency bug fixes since you first released it, or received the tape from AT&T? If so, is there some way that you can get it to shut up about everything, including casts of malloc? Background: 'lint' is frequently referred to by C users when the propensity of Unix C compilers to accept almost any stupid but valid code without comment is bemoaned. I use lint a lot; if I'm debugging a problem, I typically try a lint check before I run a debugger. However, 'lint' was first described around 1980, and at that time it was mentioned that 'there are some things that you just can't get lint to shut up about'. I have found this generally true in practice-- the mode which checks casts for portability is essentially useless, because any decent program will have a number of calls to malloc. I have found other things that I couldn't get lint to shut up about, as well--casts of long to int, etc. Yet it appears to me that lint has received little work, from commercial or academic developers, over the last 10 years. Certainly I know of no common enhancements to tell it about malloc alignment, etc. Am I just misinformed? -- Craig Jackson dricejb@drilex.dri.mgh.com {bbn,axiom,redsox,atexnet,ka3ovk}!drilex!{dricej,dricejb}
ejp@bohra.cpg.oz (Esmond Pitt) (03/08/90)
In article <8809@drilex.UUCP> dricejb@drilex.UUCP (Craig Jackson drilex1) writes: >I have a question for Unix vendors out there. Is your lint >maintained? By this, has your lint received any improvements >other than emergency bug fixes since you first released it, >or received the tape from AT&T? Good question. Every version of lint I've ever used thinks it's running on a PDP-11, and prohibits arrays larger than 64k bytes. -- Esmond Pitt, Computer Power Group ejp@bohra.cpg.oz
harrison@necssd.NEC.COM (Mark Harrison) (03/08/90)
In article <8809@drilex.UUCP>, dricejb@drilex.UUCP (Craig Jackson drilex1) writes: > I have a question for Unix vendors out there. Is your lint > maintained? By this, has your lint received any improvements Check out PC-Lint/Flexelint from Gimpel Software (215)584-4261. PC-Lint runs on MS-DOS, Flexelint runs on VMS, Unix, VM/MVS, QNX, OS-9, DG AOS/VS, & others. It has over 270 error messages. Most of them are very useful, but best of all, you can turn them on and off as necessary. > If so, is there some way that you can get it to shut up > about everything, including casts of malloc? /*lint -e523(malloc,calloc) */ <-- this means "turn off warnings about typecasts for functions malloc and calloc. [the number is not correct, but I am doing this from memory.] > [...] I use lint a lot; if If you like lint, you will LOVE PC-Lint/Flexelint! Sorry if I sound like a walking billboard, but I am so! satisfied with the product. > Craig Jackson > dricejb@drilex.dri.mgh.com > {bbn,axiom,redsox,atexnet,ka3ovk}!drilex!{dricej,dricejb} -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mark Harrison | (these opinions harrison@necssd.NEC.COM | are my own, etc.) {necntc, cs.utexas.edu}!necssd!harrison |