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 or source packages for Lintian
to process: by file name, 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
and
-s
options if you only want to process either binary 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.
-u, --unpack
Unpack the specified packages up to the current unpack level.
The default 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, --verbose
Display verbose messages.
-V, --version
Display lintian version number and exit.
-d, --debug
Display debugging messages. (Implies
-v).
Behaviour options for
lintian.
-i, --info
Print explanatory information about discovered policy violations in
addition to the lintian error tags.
-I, --display-info
Display informational ("I:") tags as well. They are normally suppressed.
-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 overriden
-U info1,info2,..., --unpack-info info1,info2,...
Collect information info1, info2, etc. even if these are not
required by the checks.
-m, --md5sums
Check md5sums when processing a .changes file. Normally, Lintian only
checks the md5sums for .dsc files when processing a .changes file.
--allow-root
Override
lintian's
warning when it is run with superuser privileges.
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.
--dist distdir
Scan for packages in the
distdir
directory. 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.
--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.
-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' or `s' (binary 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 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)
The actual package contents are unpacked as well.
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.
conffiles (cnf)
Check if the
conffiles
control file of a binary package is correct.
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.
description (des)
Check if the
Description
control field of a binary package conforms to the rules in the
Packaging Manual (chapter 7).
debian-readme (drm)
Check if the README.Debian file is merely the debmake template.
debdiff (dif)
Look for .orig and .rej files in the Debian diffs.
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.
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.
perl (prl)
Check perl scripts installed by the package for the usage of perl
modules, and check that the package declares the appropriate dependencies.
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.
spelling (spl)
Check a binary package's "Description:" field and copyright file
for common spelling errors.
standards-version (std)
Check if a source package contains a valid
Standards-Version
field in its
debian/control
file.
COLLECTION
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.
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.
file-info
Collect the output of the
file(1)
utility for each file in a binary 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
obj-dump(1)
utility for each file in a binary package.
perlmods
Search the perl scripts in a binary package for
use
and
require
directives.
scripts
Collect information about scripts in 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:
/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/info
Information used by lintian collected from external sources.
/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.
EXIT STATUS
0
No policy violations (errors) detected. (There might have been warnings, though.)
1
Policy violations 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
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 -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 handle packages with different binary and source
version numbers correctly.
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.