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Reviewer: Axel T. Schreiner

C compilers are notoriously permissive about semantic abuses of the language. lint is a UNIX utility that provides static semantic checking of multifile C programs. Unfortunately, safe coding techniques in C can still draw complaints from lint, and the program is therefore used much less than it should be. This short book explains how to use lint and how to react to the more typical complaints encountered. It also describes some efficiency improvements, such as the construction of lint libraries. Finally, it points to certain public domain programs available through Usenet that extend semantic checking, for example, to printing under static format control. The text is written from a practical point of view, contains many useful examples and relatively few errors, and makes a substantial effort to distinguish various versions of lint that have rather annoying differences in the command arguments. Some material is included unnecessarily, e.g., lint pseudo-comments that were never implemented or that currently exist only in Research UNIX, a brief history of the UNIX system, and a list of ten commandments for C programmers. Still, the book is short, useful, and to the point. I recommend it for self-study to all involved with C in a UNIX environment, as it certainly goes beyond the standard documentation on lint and makes this important tool much more accessible.