It should be noted that the best way to use lint is not as a barrier that must be overcome before official acceptance of a program, but rather as a tool to use during and after changes or additions to the code. Lint can find obscure bugs and insure portability before problems occur. Many messages from lint really do indicate something wrong. But the program dumped core every time an ordinary user made a mistake on the command line. Many versions of lint will catch this.
Most options are worth learning.
Some options may complain about legitimate things, but they will also pick up many botches. Lint also recognizes several special comments in the code. These comments both shut up lint when the code otherwise makes it complain, and also document special code.