Skip to content

os: ReadFile docstring doesn't mention returned errors. #80111

Description

@gucio321

Go version

go version go1.26.4-X:nodwarf5 linux/amd64

Output of go env in your module/workspace:

AR='ar'
CC='gcc'
CGO_CFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_CPPFLAGS=''
CGO_CXXFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_ENABLED='1'
CGO_FFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_LDFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CXX='g++'
GCCGO='gccgo'
GO111MODULE=''
GOAMD64='v1'
GOARCH='amd64'
GOAUTH='netrc'
GOBIN=''
GOCACHE='/home/gucio321/.cache/go-build'
GOCACHEPROG=''
GODEBUG=''
GOENV='/home/gucio321/.config/go/env'
GOEXE=''
GOEXPERIMENT='nodwarf5'
GOFIPS140='off'
GOFLAGS=''
GOGCCFLAGS='-fPIC -m64 -pthread -Wl,--no-gc-sections -fmessage-length=0 -ffile-prefix-map=/tmp/go-build2759617959=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches'
GOHOSTARCH='amd64'
GOHOSTOS='linux'
GOINSECURE=''
GOMOD='/dev/null'
GOMODCACHE='/home/gucio321/go/pkg/mod'
GONOPROXY=''
GONOSUMDB=''
GOOS='linux'
GOPATH='/home/gucio321/go'
GOPRIVATE=''
GOPROXY='https://proxy.golang.org,direct'
GOROOT='/usr/lib/go'
GOSUMDB='sum.golang.org'
GOTELEMETRY='local'
GOTELEMETRYDIR='/home/gucio321/.config/go/telemetry'
GOTMPDIR=''
GOTOOLCHAIN='auto'
GOTOOLDIR='/usr/lib/go/pkg/tool/linux_amd64'
GOVCS=''
GOVERSION='go1.26.4-X:nodwarf5'
GOWORK=''
PKG_CONFIG='pkg-config'

What did you do?

Hi!
I wa writing a simple code using os.ReadFile. I wanted to hanhdle os.ErrNotExist somehow. I spent around 5 min searching through documentation and go src code (ended up asking AI which finally gave me an answer).

What did you see happen?

go doc os.ReadFile doesn't mention what errors are returned by os.ReadFile.

What did you expect to see?

go doc os.open says If there is an error, it will be of type *PathError.. This is a minium I'd expect to hear from go doc os.ReadFile as well.

    ReadFile reads the named file and returns the contents. A successful call
    returns err == nil, not err == EOF. Because ReadFile reads the whole file,
    it does not treat an EOF from Read as an error to be reported.

    Open opens the named file for reading. If successful, methods on the
    returned file can be used for reading; the associated file descriptor has
    mode O_RDONLY. If there is an error, it will be of type *PathError.

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    DocumentationIssues describing a change to documentation.NeedsInvestigationSomeone must examine and confirm this is a valid issue and not a duplicate of an existing one.help wanted

    Type

    No type

    Fields

    No fields configured for issues without a type.

    Projects

    No projects

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions