In the context of programming, a 'linter' is a tool that analyzes code to detect potential code errors or coding anti-patterns or organisational style preferences etc.
To 'lint' is a verb meaning to run the linter.
Dictionaries don't appear to include this usage in their definitions, which is an interesting musing - there are certain words that are invented by the industry that eventually do make it into dictionaries, e.g. debug, script.
Just wondering how this term came about.
The usage of “lint” in computing is derived by analogy from the more common and traditional usage of lint referring to clothing, as suggested below:
Stephen C. Johnson, a computer scientist at Bell Labs, came up with the term "lint" in 1978 while debugging the yacc grammar he was writing for C and dealing with portability issues stemming from porting Unix to a 32-bit machine.
The term was borrowed from the word lint, the tiny bits of fiber and fluff shed by clothing, as the command he wrote would act like a lint trap in a clothes dryer, capturing waste fibers while leaving whole fabrics intact. In 1979, lint programming was used outside of Bell Labs for the first time, in the seventh version (V7) of Unix.
To explicate the (implicit) analogy: The compiler, as part of the compilation process, made sure that you didn't go to work with your underwear over your trousers (no absolutely incorrect code got past it). The linter would pick off little bits of lint that were on your clothes (and probably straighten your tie too) - not absolutely necessary things, but nice to have.
Notice that both compiling and linting are processes done on static code (this is way before JIT-ing), so that's not an important distinction - it was the degree of fastidiousness that's the difference. The compiler only cared that it could make some kind of sense out of your code; the linter had opinions.
It's an old code validation utility back from when Linux was called Unix and Unix cost money. It's obviously a metaphor of picking lint off clothing.
No, I can't explain WHY that's obvious, and yes, I will be downvoted for that. But I imagine the obviousness explains why it's not documented.
In LISP, it's called a "prettyprinter," and maybe the reason for that isn't obvious either.
