diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 64fd4031e4a8..b7c21ef338f3 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -39,5 +39,3 @@ nosetests.xml
 nova/tests/cover/*
 nova/vcsversion.py
 tools/conf/nova.conf*
-tools/lintstack.head.py
-tools/pylint_exceptions
diff --git a/pylintrc b/pylintrc
deleted file mode 100644
index 135eea4d57dd..000000000000
--- a/pylintrc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,38 +0,0 @@
-# The format of this file isn't really documented; just use --generate-rcfile
-
-[Messages Control]
-# NOTE(justinsb): We might want to have a 2nd strict pylintrc in future
-# C0111: Don't require docstrings on every method
-# W0511: TODOs in code comments are fine.
-# W0142: *args and **kwargs are fine.
-# W0622: Redefining id is fine.
-disable=C0111,W0511,W0142,W0622
-
-[Basic]
-# Variable names can be 1 to 31 characters long, with lowercase and underscores
-variable-rgx=[a-z_][a-z0-9_]{0,30}$
-
-# Argument names can be 2 to 31 characters long, with lowercase and underscores
-argument-rgx=[a-z_][a-z0-9_]{1,30}$
-
-# Method names should be at least 3 characters long
-# and be lowecased with underscores
-method-rgx=([a-z_][a-z0-9_]{2,50}|setUp|tearDown)$
-
-# Module names matching nova-* are ok (files in bin/)
-module-rgx=(([a-z_][a-z0-9_]*)|([A-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]+)|(nova-[a-z0-9_-]+))$
-
-# Don't require docstrings on tests.
-no-docstring-rgx=((__.*__)|([tT]est.*)|setUp|tearDown)$
-
-[Design]
-max-public-methods=100
-min-public-methods=0
-max-args=6
-
-[Variables]
-
-# List of additional names supposed to be defined in builtins. Remember that
-# you should avoid to define new builtins when possible.
-# _ is used by our localization
-additional-builtins=_
diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index 6c9aee5a1cc2..9b3e7999f402 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ mox>=0.5.3
 mox3>=0.7.0
 MySQL-python
 psycopg2
-pylint>=1.3.0  # GNU GPL v2
 python-ironicclient>=0.2.1
 python-subunit>=0.0.18
 requests-mock>=0.5.1  # Apache-2.0
diff --git a/tools/lintstack.py b/tools/lintstack.py
deleted file mode 100755
index 186ae9b85238..000000000000
--- a/tools/lintstack.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,201 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
-# Copyright (c) 2012, AT&T Labs, Yun Mao <yunmao@gmail.com>
-# All Rights Reserved.
-#
-#    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
-#    not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
-#    a copy of the License at
-#
-#         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-#    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-#    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
-#    WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
-#    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
-#    under the License.
-
-"""pylint error checking."""
-
-from __future__ import print_function
-
-import cStringIO as StringIO
-import json
-import re
-import sys
-
-from pylint import lint
-
-# Note(maoy): E1103 is error code related to partial type inference
-ignore_codes = ["E1103"]
-# Note(maoy): the error message is the pattern of E0202. It should be ignored
-# for nova.tests modules
-ignore_messages = ["An attribute affected in nova.tests"]
-# Note(maoy): we ignore all errors in openstack.common because it should be
-# checked elsewhere. We also ignore nova.tests for now due to high false
-# positive rate.
-# Note(danms): we ignore all errors in nova.objects because the false
-# positive rate should be very high.
-ignore_modules = ["nova/openstack/common/", "nova/tests/", "nova/objects/"]
-
-KNOWN_PYLINT_EXCEPTIONS_FILE = "tools/pylint_exceptions"
-
-
-class LintOutput(object):
-
-    _cached_filename = None
-    _cached_content = None
-
-    def __init__(self, filename, lineno, line_content, code, message,
-                 lintoutput):
-        self.filename = filename
-        self.lineno = lineno
-        self.line_content = line_content
-        self.code = code
-        self.message = message
-        self.lintoutput = lintoutput
-
-    @classmethod
-    def from_line(cls, line):
-        m = re.search(r"(\S+):(\d+): \[(\S+)(, \S+)?] (.*)", line)
-        matched = m.groups()
-        filename, lineno, code, message = (matched[0], int(matched[1]),
-                                           matched[2], matched[-1])
-        if cls._cached_filename != filename:
-            with open(filename) as f:
-                cls._cached_content = list(f.readlines())
-                cls._cached_filename = filename
-        line_content = cls._cached_content[lineno - 1].rstrip()
-        return cls(filename, lineno, line_content, code, message,
-                   line.rstrip())
-
-    @classmethod
-    def from_msg_to_dict(cls, msg):
-        """From the output of pylint msg, to a dict, where each key
-        is a unique error identifier, value is a list of LintOutput
-        """
-        result = {}
-        for line in msg.splitlines():
-            obj = cls.from_line(line)
-            if obj.is_ignored():
-                continue
-            key = obj.key()
-            if key not in result:
-                result[key] = []
-            result[key].append(obj)
-        return result
-
-    def is_ignored(self):
-        if self.code in ignore_codes:
-            return True
-        if any(self.filename.startswith(name) for name in ignore_modules):
-            return True
-        if any(msg in self.message for msg in ignore_messages):
-            return True
-        return False
-
-    def key(self):
-        if self.code in ["E1101", "E1103"]:
-            # These two types of errors are like Foo class has no member bar.
-            # We discard the source code so that the error will be ignored
-            # next time another Foo.bar is encountered.
-            return self.message, ""
-        return self.message, self.line_content.strip()
-
-    def json(self):
-        return json.dumps(self.__dict__)
-
-    def review_str(self):
-        return ("File %(filename)s\nLine %(lineno)d:%(line_content)s\n"
-                "%(code)s: %(message)s" % self.__dict__)
-
-
-class ErrorKeys(object):
-
-    @classmethod
-    def print_json(cls, errors, output=sys.stdout):
-        print("# automatically generated by tools/lintstack.py", file=output)
-        for i in sorted(errors.keys()):
-            print(json.dumps(i), file=output)
-
-    @classmethod
-    def from_file(cls, filename):
-        keys = set()
-        for line in open(filename):
-            if line and line[0] != "#":
-                d = json.loads(line)
-                keys.add(tuple(d))
-        return keys
-
-
-def run_pylint():
-    buff = StringIO.StringIO()
-    args = ["--msg-template={path}:{line}: [{msg_id}({symbol}), {obj}] {msg}",
-            "-E",
-            "nova"]
-    lint.Run(args, exit=False)
-    val = buff.getvalue()
-    buff.close()
-    return val
-
-
-def generate_error_keys(msg=None):
-    print("Generating", KNOWN_PYLINT_EXCEPTIONS_FILE)
-    if msg is None:
-        msg = run_pylint()
-    errors = LintOutput.from_msg_to_dict(msg)
-    with open(KNOWN_PYLINT_EXCEPTIONS_FILE, "w") as f:
-        ErrorKeys.print_json(errors, output=f)
-
-
-def validate(newmsg=None):
-    print("Loading", KNOWN_PYLINT_EXCEPTIONS_FILE)
-    known = ErrorKeys.from_file(KNOWN_PYLINT_EXCEPTIONS_FILE)
-    if newmsg is None:
-        print("Running pylint. Be patient...")
-        newmsg = run_pylint()
-    errors = LintOutput.from_msg_to_dict(newmsg)
-
-    print("Unique errors reported by pylint: was %d, now %d."
-           % (len(known), len(errors)))
-    passed = True
-    for err_key, err_list in errors.items():
-        for err in err_list:
-            if err_key not in known:
-                print(err.lintoutput)
-                print()
-                passed = False
-    if passed:
-        print("Congrats! pylint check passed.")
-        redundant = known - set(errors.keys())
-        if redundant:
-            print("Extra credit: some known pylint exceptions disappeared.")
-            for i in sorted(redundant):
-                print(json.dumps(i))
-            print("Consider regenerating the exception file if you will.")
-    else:
-        print ("Please fix the errors above. If you believe they are false"
-              " positives, run 'tools/lintstack.py generate' to overwrite.")
-        sys.exit(1)
-
-
-def usage():
-    print("""Usage: tools/lintstack.py [generate|validate]
-    To generate pylint_exceptions file: tools/lintstack.py generate
-    To validate the current commit: tools/lintstack.py
-    """)
-
-
-def main():
-    option = "validate"
-    if len(sys.argv) > 1:
-        option = sys.argv[1]
-    if option == "generate":
-        generate_error_keys()
-    elif option == "validate":
-        validate()
-    else:
-        usage()
-
-
-if __name__ == "__main__":
-    main()
diff --git a/tools/lintstack.sh b/tools/lintstack.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index d8591d03dd1e..000000000000
--- a/tools/lintstack.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,59 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-
-# Copyright (c) 2012-2013, AT&T Labs, Yun Mao <yunmao@gmail.com>
-# All Rights Reserved.
-#
-#    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
-#    not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
-#    a copy of the License at
-#
-#         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-#    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-#    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
-#    WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
-#    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
-#    under the License.
-
-# Use lintstack.py to compare pylint errors.
-# We run pylint twice, once on HEAD, once on the code before the latest
-# commit for review.
-set -e
-TOOLS_DIR=$(cd $(dirname "$0") && pwd)
-# Get the current branch name.
-GITHEAD=`git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD`
-if [[ "$GITHEAD" == "HEAD" ]]; then
-    # In detached head mode, get revision number instead
-    GITHEAD=`git rev-parse HEAD`
-    echo "Currently we are at commit $GITHEAD"
-else
-    echo "Currently we are at branch $GITHEAD"
-fi
-
-cp -f $TOOLS_DIR/lintstack.py $TOOLS_DIR/lintstack.head.py
-
-if git rev-parse HEAD^2 2>/dev/null; then
-    # The HEAD is a Merge commit. Here, the patch to review is
-    # HEAD^2, the master branch is at HEAD^1, and the patch was
-    # written based on HEAD^2~1.
-    PREV_COMMIT=`git rev-parse HEAD^2~1`
-    git checkout HEAD~1
-    # The git merge is necessary for reviews with a series of patches.
-    # If not, this is a no-op so won't hurt either.
-    git merge $PREV_COMMIT
-else
-    # The HEAD is not a merge commit. This won't happen on gerrit.
-    # Most likely you are running against your own patch locally.
-    # We assume the patch to examine is HEAD, and we compare it against
-    # HEAD~1
-    git checkout HEAD~1
-fi
-
-# First generate tools/pylint_exceptions from HEAD~1
-$TOOLS_DIR/lintstack.head.py generate
-# Then use that as a reference to compare against HEAD
-git checkout $GITHEAD
-$TOOLS_DIR/lintstack.head.py
-echo "Check passed. FYI: the pylint exceptions are:"
-cat $TOOLS_DIR/pylint_exceptions
-
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 54b714d6f497..a11de78773e5 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -45,9 +45,6 @@ commands =
 commands =
   bash tools/config/generate_sample.sh -b . -p nova -o etc/nova
 
-[testenv:pylint]
-commands = bash tools/lintstack.sh
-
 [testenv:cover]
 # Also do not run test_coverage_ext tests while gathering coverage as those
 # tests conflict with coverage.