LINTIAN-ANNOTATE-HINTS(1)

📦
version 2.139.0ubuntu2 · 11 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💅 LINTIAN-ANNOTATE-HINTS 💅

okay bestie, so this is a page from the Debian Package Checker family — it's lintian-annotate-hints, and it's literally the ✨gossip girl✨ of Lintian. It takes your error tags and tells you the entire story about them instead of just the cliffnotes. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

lintian-annotate-hints — give detailed information about Lintian's error tags

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

lintian-annotate-hints [log-file...]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So here's the vibe: the lintian-annotate-hints command parses the EWI output of the lintian command and gives verbose information about the listed Lintian tags. It can also parse a Lintian override file and give verbose information about the tags that are in there. Two totally different inputs, same energy. 💖

If you don't specify any log-file on the command line, this command expects its input on stdin. So basically you have options, bestie — you can pipe the output of lintian through lintian-annotate-hints, OR you can point it at a log file produced by lintian and let it do its thing. 🫶

ngl, there's a whole thing here though. The lintian command has a command line option -i that displays the same results as lintian-annotate-hints. So lowkey you normally don't need to pipe the output of lintian through this command at all to see the extra info. 😭 convenient, right?

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • -a, --annotate — read from standard input or any files specified on the command line, and then search the input for lines formatted like Lintian override entries. For each one that it finds, it displays verbose information about that tag. it's giving detective mode 🔍
  • -h, --help — display usage information and exit. your classic "wait what do I do" button. 💅
  • --include-dir dir — use dir as an additional "Lintian root". The directory is expected to have a layout similar to the LINTIAN_BASE (if that exists), but it does not need to be a full self-contained root.

Now for the important bit, bestie: unlike lintian, lintian-annotate-hints will not load any code from these additional directories. 🚫

This option may appear more than once; each time it adds another directory. stack 'em up 🍓

  • --profile prof — use the severities from the vendor profile prof when displaying tags. If the profile name does not contain a slash, the default profile for that vendor is chosen. iykyk

If you don't specify it, annotate-lintian-hint loads the best profile for the current vendor. ✨

Please refer to the Lintian User Manual for the full documentation of profiles. 📖

  • --user-dirs, --no-user-dirs — by default, lintian will check $HOME and /etc for files supplied by the user or the local sysadmin (e.g. profiles). That default can be disabled and re-enabled with --no-user-dirs and --user-dirs, respectively. 🎀

These options can appear multiple times, in which case the one of them to appear last determines the result. last one wins, periodt. 💅

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

  • Niels Thykier <niels@thykier.net>
  • Richard Braakman <dark@xs4all.nl>
  • Christian Schwarz <schwarz@monet.m.isar.de>

and that's the whole page, bestie 🌈 this was Lintian v2.139.0ubuntu2, dated 2026-10-08 — go annotate some hints and slay 💖✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from