What is Lint?

Lint or linter is a static code analysis tool that was originally introduced in 1978. It is used to flag programming errors, stylistic errors or bugs.

Typically you will find developers using lint testing on their software code. But it is also something that is now being used by SysAdmins, DevOps engineers and the like.

Lint testing can be carried out on Infrastructure as Code (IaC) again to flag any errors, formatting discrepancies, or bugs or best practice violations.

Tania Allard explained that “adopting standards and letting linting take care of this also frees up loads of effort/time for reviewers (as in PRs) to focus on what really matters: implementation, new features, performance/security/experience improvements, edge and not so edge cases without losing focus due to ill-formatted code.”

Why is Linting important?

Performing lint test, or linting your code is important to help reduce errors and ultimately improve the overall quality of your code.

Lint testing should be done early on in the development of your code, whether that is software code or Infrastructure as Code. It will help to spot any errors early and help your code writers focus on the right things.

Connell McGinley explained that lint testing is important because “Linters allow…