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lclint 2.4b for OS/2
====================
Contents:
---------
What is LCLint?
Installation
What is LCLint?
---------------
[taken from the README file shipping with LCLint 2.3]
LCLint is a tool for statically checking C programs. With minimal
effort, LCLint can be used as a better lint. If additional effort is
invested adding annotations to programs, LCLint can perform stronger
checks than can be done by any standard lint.
LCLint does many of the traditional lint checks including unused
declarations, type inconsistencies, use-before-definition, unreachable
code, ignored return values, execution paths with no return, likely
infinite loops, and fall-through cases. Our main focus, however, is on
more powerful checks that are made possible by additional information
given in source code annotations. Annotations are stylized comments
that document certain assumptions about functions, variables,
parameters, and types. They may be used to indicate where the
representation of a user-defined type is hidden, to limit where a global
variable may be used or modified, to constrain what a function
implementation may do to its parameters, and to express checked
assumptions about variables, types, structure fields, function
parameters, and function results. In addition to the checks
specifically enabled by annotations, many of the traditional lint checks
are improved by exploiting this additional information.
Some problems detected by LCLint include:
o Violations of information hiding. A user-defined type can be declared
as abstract, and a message is reported where code inappropriately
depends on the representation of the type.
o Inconsistent modification of caller-visible state. Functions can be
annotated with information on what caller-visible state may be modified
by the function, and an error is reported if the modifications produces
by the function contradict its declaration.
o Inconsistent use of global variables. Information on what global and
file scope variables a function may use can be added to function
declarations, and a message is reported if the implementation of the
function uses other global variables or does not uses every global
variable listed in its declaration.
o Memory management errors. Instances where storage that has been
deallocated is used, or where storage is not deallocated (memory leaks).
o Dangerous data sharing or unexpected aliasing. Parameters to a
function share storage in a way that may lead to undefined or undesired
behavior, or a reference to storage within the representation of an
abstract type is created.
o Using possibly undefined storage or returning storage that is not
completely defined (except as documented).
o Dereferencing a possibly null pointer.
o Dangerous macro implementations or invocations.
o Violations of customizable naming conventions.
o Program behavior that is undefined because it depends on order of
evaluation, likely infinite loops, fall-through cases, incomplete logic,
statements with no effect, ignored return values, unused declarations,
and exceeding certain standard limits.
LCLint checking can be customized to select what classes of errors are
reported using command line flags and stylized comments in the code.
For more information, please visit the LCLint home page at
http://larch-www.lcs.mit.edu:8001/larch/lclint/
We are very interested in hearing about your experiences using LCLint.
Send any questions or comments to lclint@larch.lcs.mit.edu.
There are two mailing lists associated with LCLint:
lclint-announce@larch.lcs.mit.edu
Reserved for announcements of new releases and bug fixes.
lclint-interest@larch.lcs.mit.edu
Informal discussions on the use and development of lclint.
Send a (human-readable) message to lclint-request@larch.lcs.mit.edu to
subscribe to a list. Everyone who uses lclint should subscribe to
lclint-announce, to be informed of new releases.
Installation:
-------------
This archive contains two further archives, one providing all files needed
to run LCLint, the other containing the user's guide in OS/2 INF format.
To install LCLint refer to the README.OS2 file which is part of the first
ZIP-file formerly mentioned. The user's guide should just be copied into
any directory mentioned in the BOOKSHELF environment variable.