lintian-info

lintian-info [OPTIONS] [TAGNAME...]
lintian-info --tags [OPTIONS]
lintian-info --check-id TAG_ID
lintian-info --keywords KEYWORDS [OPTIONS]

--help, -h
    Display a help message and exit.

--version, -v
    Show program's version number and exit.

--tag=TAG, -t TAG
    Specify a Lintian tag to query. Can be used multiple times.

--tags, -T
    List all known Lintian tags.

--severity=SEVERITY, -s SEVERITY
    Filter tags by severity (e.g., error, warning, info, pedantic, override).

--format=FORMAT, -F FORMAT
    Set output format (e.g., plain, json, xml). Default is plain.

--check-id=TAG_ID, -c TAG_ID
    Check if the provided tag ID is valid. Returns specific exit codes.

--show-description, -S
    Display the full description for the specified tags.

--show-paragraph, -P
    Display the paragraph description for the specified tags.

--show-defaults, -D
    Display the default values for command options.

--show-all, -A
    Display all available information for the specified tags.

--show-list-info, -L
    Display information about Lintian tag lists.

--class=TAG_CLASS, -C TAG_CLASS
    Filter tags by class (e.g., binary, source, override).

--exit-code, -e
    Use exit codes to indicate tag validity or match status.

--info, -i
    Show information about tag properties.

--keywords=KEYWORDS, -k KEYWORDS
    Search for tags matching the provided keywords.

--experimental, -X
    Include experimental tags in the output.

--unmatched, -u
    When used with --keywords, show tags that did not match the keywords.

--manpage, -M
    Show the manpage location for tag documentation (if available).

--show-source-paragraph, -p
    Show the source code paragraph for a tag (if available).

--no-pager, -N
    Do not use a pager for displaying output.

--quiet, -q
    Suppress non-essential output.

lintian-info is a command-line utility specifically designed for querying and retrieving comprehensive information about Lintian tags. Lintian itself is a critical static analysis tool within the Debian ecosystem, employed to scrutinize Debian packages for policy violations, common errors, and best practice adherence. This command empowers users to access detailed descriptions, severities, classes, and other essential properties associated with specific Lintian tags. It offers versatile output formats, including human-readable plain text, structured JSON, and XML, thereby catering to both interactive command-line usage and automated scripting environments. Beyond individual tag queries, lintian-info can enumerate all known tags, apply filters based on severity or class, and perform searches using keywords, making it an indispensable resource for Debian package maintainers and developers who need to quickly grasp the implications of specific Lintian warnings or errors reported against their software packages.

The --format option significantly alters the output structure; json or xml formats require specific parsing logic. Displaying full descriptions or using --show-all can produce lengthy output, which might be paginated by default unless --no-pager is used. Some options, like --check-id or --keywords, operate in distinct modes and may be mutually exclusive with direct tag querying.

• 0: Success, or requested tags are valid/found.
• 1: General error or invalid arguments.
• 2: (With --check-id) The tag ID was not found.
• 3: (With --keywords) No matching tags were found for the keywords.

LINTIAN_ROOT: Specifies the root directory where Lintian expects to find its data files, including tag definitions. This can be useful for testing or custom Lintian setups.

/usr/share/lintian/tags/*: Directory containing the definitions of Lintian tags. These files are parsed by lintian-info to provide the requested information.

lintian-info was introduced as part of the Lintian suite to provide a dedicated and robust way to query details about Lintian tags. It succeeded or complemented lintian-explain-tags, offering more structured output options (like JSON and XML) and enhanced search capabilities. Its development reflects the growing need for programmatic access to tag information within automated testing and CI/CD pipelines, providing comprehensive and accessible documentation for the vast and evolving set of Lintian checks.

lintian(1), lintian-explain-tags(1)