README
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Vet is a tool that checks correctness of Go programs. It runs a suite of tests, each tailored to check for a particular class of errors. Examples include incorrect Printf format verbs and malformed build tags. Over time many checks have been added to vet's suite, but many more have been rejected as not appropriate for the tool. The criteria applied when selecting which checks to add are: Correctness: Vet's checks are about correctness, not style. A vet check must identify real or potential bugs that could cause incorrect compilation or execution. A check that only identifies stylistic points or alternative correct approaches to a situation is not acceptable. Frequency: Vet is run every day by many programmers, often as part of every compilation or submission. The cost in execution time is considerable, especially in aggregate, so checks must be likely enough to find real problems that they are worth the overhead of the added check. A new check that finds only a handful of problems across all existing programs, even if the problem is significant, is not worth adding to the suite everyone runs daily. Precision: Most of vet's checks are heuristic and can generate both false positives (flagging correct programs) and false negatives (not flagging incorrect ones). The rate of both these failures must be very small. A check that is too noisy will be ignored by the programmer overwhelmed by the output; a check that misses too many of the cases it's looking for will give a false sense of security. Neither is acceptable. A vet check must be accurate enough that everything it reports is worth examining, and complete enough to encourage real confidence.
Documentation
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Overview ¶
Vet examines Go source code and reports suspicious constructs, such as Printf calls whose arguments do not align with the format string. Vet uses heuristics that do not guarantee all reports are genuine problems, but it can find errors not caught by the compilers.
Vet is normally invoked through the go command. This command vets the package in the current directory:
go vet
whereas this one vets the packages whose path is provided:
go vet my/project/...
Use "go help packages" to see other ways of specifying which packages to vet.
Vet's exit code is non-zero for erroneous invocation of the tool or if a problem was reported, and 0 otherwise. Note that the tool does not check every possible problem and depends on unreliable heuristics, so it should be used as guidance only, not as a firm indicator of program correctness.
To list the available checks, run "go tool vet help":
asmdecl report mismatches between assembly files and Go declarations assign check for useless assignments atomic check for common mistakes using the sync/atomic package bools check for common mistakes involving boolean operators buildtag check that +build tags are well-formed and correctly located cgocall detect some violations of the cgo pointer passing rules composites check for unkeyed composite literals copylocks check for locks erroneously passed by value httpresponse check for mistakes using HTTP responses loopclosure check references to loop variables from within nested functions lostcancel check cancel func returned by context.WithCancel is called nilfunc check for useless comparisons between functions and nil printf check consistency of Printf format strings and arguments shift check for shifts that equal or exceed the width of the integer stdmethods check signature of methods of well-known interfaces structtag check that struct field tags conform to reflect.StructTag.Get tests check for common mistaken usages of tests and examples unmarshal report passing non-pointer or non-interface values to unmarshal unreachable check for unreachable code unsafeptr check for invalid conversions of uintptr to unsafe.Pointer unusedresult check for unused results of calls to some functions
For details and flags of a particular check, such as printf, run "go tool vet help printf".
By default, all checks are performed. If any flags are explicitly set to true, only those tests are run. Conversely, if any flag is explicitly set to false, only those tests are disabled. Thus -printf=true runs the printf check, and -printf=false runs all checks except the printf check.
For information on writing a new check, see golang.org/x/tools/go/analysis.
Core flags:
-c=N display offending line plus N lines of surrounding context -json emit analysis diagnostics (and errors) in JSON format