go-critic/ruleguard: load embedded ruleguard rules: rules/rules.go:13: can't load fmt

[ldez]

The issue is a kind of documentation about this topic.

Description of the problem

• Before v1.49.0, the load of the ruleguard (go-critic) rules happens in an init() function and through a panic if there is a problem (I will explain the problem after).

$ golangci-lint run
panic: load embedded ruleguard rules: rules/rules.go:13: can't load fmt

goroutine 1 [running]:
github.com/go-critic/go-critic/checkers.init.9()
    github.com/go-critic/go-critic@v0.6.1/checkers/checkers.go:58 +0x4b4

• After v1.49.0, the load of the ruleguard (go-critic) rules happens only when go-critic is enabled, and it will produce a simple error. From my experience, the error should disappear with this release due to changes inside ruleguard and go-critic.

$ golangci-lint run
[ERROR] go-critic: load embedded ruleguard rules: rules/rules.go:13: can't load fmt: setting an explicit GOROOT can fix this problem.

The problem

The error happens only when ruleguard (go-critic) is not able to load rules.

ruleguard (go-critic) uses GOROOT to load rules.

If the value of GOROOT is empty, ruleguard will fallback to the GOROOT from the Go context but this Go context can be wrong.

go-critic issues

• panic in load embedded ruleguard rules: can't load fmt go-critic/go-critic#1126
• Panic after upgrade golangci-lint to v1.43.0 go-critic/go-critic#1157
• panic under Go 1.18 go-critic/go-critic#1210 (duplicate)
• Support generics for Go 1.18 go-critic/go-critic#1193 (duplicate)
• Transform init function in embedded_rules.go to an exported function go-critic/go-critic#1218

Previous issues

• go1.17 arm64 fails with can't load fmt error (>= 1.45.0) #2673
• Panic since update to v1.43.0 (load embedded ruleguard rules: rules/rules.go:13: can't load fmt) #2374
• go1.17 arm64 fails with can't load fmt error (>= 1.45.0) #2673
• go-critic/ruleguard: compatibility with Go 1.18 #2414
• go-critic: checkers.init panic with go1.19beta1 #2922
• Go 1.19 panic: can't load fmt #3057
• Panics with go1.19 #3053

The solution?

To avoid this problem you can define explicitly the GOROOT environment variable.

$ go env GOROOT                                            
/usr/local/go

$ export GOROOT=/usr/local/go
# or
export "GOROOT=$(go env GOROOT)"

[biggianteye]

• Before v1.49.0
• After v1.49.0

Is this a typo? The latest version at the time of writing this is v1.48.0.

[ldez]

no, I'm talking about the next version (v1.49.0). I didn't use the future tense just to be descriptive.

[biggianteye]

no, I'm talking about the next version (v1.49.0). I didn't use the future tense just to be descriptive.

Ah, I see. Now that I look more closely I can see that your changes are in master, ready for the next version. Makes sense now. Thanks.

[cristaloleg]

I see v0.6.1 in your log but AFAIR v0.6.4 fixed everything (https://github.com/go-critic/go-critic/releases/tag/v0.6.4) isn't it?

[ldez]

The logs are related to golangci-lint before v1.49.0.

[andig]

@ldez I had expected this to be resolved in v1.49.0 due to upgrade of go-critic, but it seems it isn't and still crashes on startup:

brew info golangci-lint
==> golangci-lint: stable 1.49.0 (bottled), HEAD
Fast linters runner for Go
https://golangci-lint.run/
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/golangci-lint/1.49.0 (9 files, 28.7MB) *
  Poured from bottle on 2022-08-24 at 18:41:07
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/HEAD/Formula/golangci-lint.rb
License: GPL-3.0-only
==> Dependencies
Required: go ✔
==> Options
--HEAD
	Install HEAD version
==> Caveats
zsh completions have been installed to:
  /opt/homebrew/share/zsh/site-functions
==> Analytics
install: 19,317 (30 days), 39,846 (90 days), 117,291 (365 days)
install-on-request: 19,309 (30 days), 39,814 (90 days), 117,186 (365 days)
build-error: 3 (30 days)
 evcc master*​ ≡ ❯
golangci-lint version
panic: load embedded ruleguard rules: rules/rules.go:13: can't load fmt

goroutine 1 [running]:
github.com/go-critic/go-critic/checkers.init.22()
	/Users/andig/go/pkg/mod/github.com/go-critic/go-critic@v0.6.3/checkers/embedded_rules.go:47 +0x494

I'm wondering why it sill points to go-critic@v0.6.3 though?