context loading failed: no go files to analyze

[rmilejcz]

I have regularly run golangci-lint run from the root of my directory without issue for the last several weeks. Today, after successfully running golangci-lint run, I fixed all the reported issues and then ran the command in the same terminal but I got the output:

ERRO Running error: context loading failed: no go files to analyze

even though nothing seems to have changed. The project structure is basically 60 or so folders, each having a main.go, a main_test.go and two auto generated files which are ignored by golangci-lint. If I specify a package it lints without issue e.g.:

golangci-lint run ActivityLog

runs the linter on that package without any error.

Version of golangci-lint

$ golangci-lint --version
golangci-lint has version 1.21.0 built from 645e794 on 2019-10-15T18:15:04Z

Config file

$ cat .golangci.yml
run:
  concurrency: 4
  deadline: 2m
  issues-exit-code: 1
  tests: true

output:
  format: colored-line-number
  print-issued-lines: true
  print-linter-name: true

linter-settings:
  errcheck:
    check-type-assertions: true
    check-blank: true

  govet:
    check-shadowing: true
    settings:
      printf:
        funcs:
          - (github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/pkg/logutils.Log).Infof
          - (github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/pkg/logutils.Log).Warnf
          - (github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/pkg/logutils.Log).Errorf
          - (github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/pkg/logutils.Log).Fatalf
  golint:
    min-confidence: 0.8

  gofmt:
    simplify: true

  goimports:
    local-prefixes: kalos-core

  gocyclo:
    min-complexity: 20

  maligned:
    suggest-new: true

  goconst:
    min-len: 3
    min-occurrences: 3

  misspell:
    locale: US
    ignore-words:
      - supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

  lll:
    line-length: 120
    tab-width: 2

  unused:
    check-exported: false

  unparam:
    check-exported: false

  prealloc:
    simple: true
    range-loops: true
    for-loops: false

  gocritic:
    enabled-checks:
      - appendAssign
      - argOrder
      - assignOp
      - badCond
      - boolExprSimplify
      - builtinShadow
      - captLocal
      - caseOrder
      - commendOutCode
      - commentFormatting
      - commentedOutImport
      - defaultCaseOrder
      - deprecatedComment
      - docStub
      - dupArg
      - dupBranchBody
      - dupCase
      - dupSubExpr
      - elseif
      - emptyFallthrough
      - emptyStringTest
      - equalFold
      - exitAfterDefer
      - flagDeref
      - flagName
      - hexLiteral
      - hugeParam
      - ifElseChain
      - importShadow
      - indexAlloc
      - initClause
      - methodExprCall
      - nestingReduce
      - nilValReturn
      - octalLiteral
      - offBy1
      - paramTypeCombine
      - ptrToRefParam
      - rangeExprCopy
      - rangeValCopy
      - regexpMust
      - singleCaseSwitch
      - sloppyLen
      - sloppyReassign
      - stringXbytes
      - switchTrue
      - typeAssertChain
      - typeSwitchVar
      - typeUnparen
      - underef
      - unlabelStmt
      - unlambda
      - unnecessaryBlock
      - unslice
      - valSwap
      - weakCond
      - wrapperFunc
      - yodaStyleExpr

    disabled-checks:
      - codegenComment
      - unnamedResult

linters:
  enable:
    - bodyclose
    - megacheck
    - govet
    - errcheck
    - staticcheck
    - unused
    - gosimple
    - structcheck
    - varcheck
    - ineffassign
    - deadcode
    - typecheck
    - gosec
    - interfacer
    - unconvert
    - goconst
    - gocyclo
    - goimports
    - maligned
    - misspell
    - unparam
    - scopelint
    - gocritic
    - gochecknoinits
  disable:
    - dupl
    - lll
    - stylecheck

Go environment

$ go version && go env
go version go1.13.1 darwin/amd64
GO111MODULE="on"
GOARCH="amd64"
GOBIN="/Users/robertmilejczak/Documents/Projects/bin"
GOCACHE="/Users/robertmilejczak/Library/Caches/go-build"
GOENV="/Users/robertmilejczak/Library/Application Support/go/env"
GOEXE=""
GOFLAGS=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="darwin"
GONOPROXY=""
GONOSUMDB=""
GOOS="darwin"
GOPATH="/Users/robertmilejczak/Documents/Projects"
GOPRIVATE=""
GOPROXY="https://proxy.golang.org,direct"
GOROOT="/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.13.1/libexec"
GOSUMDB="sum.golang.org"
GOTMPDIR=""
GOTOOLDIR="/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.13.1/libexec/pkg/tool/darwin_amd64"
GCCGO="gccgo"
AR="ar"
CC="clang"
CXX="clang++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
GOMOD="/Users/robertmilejczak/Documents/Projects/src/github.com/rmilejcz/kalos-core/go.mod"
CGO_CFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_CPPFLAGS=""
CGO_CXXFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_FFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_LDFLAGS="-g -O2"
PKG_CONFIG="pkg-config"
GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fno-caret-diagnostics -Qunused-arguments -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/var/folders/kv/npdslxvd0ml09ntv_0rsmqcr0000gn/T/go-build078154239=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches -fno-common"

Verbose output of running

$ golangci-lint run -v
INFO [config_reader] Config search paths: [./ /Users/robertmilejczak/Documents/Projects/src/github.com/rmilejcz/kalos-core/server /Users/robertmilejczak/Documents/Projects/src/github.com/rmilejcz/kalos-core /Users/robertmilejczak/Documents/Projects/src/github.com/rmilejcz /Users/robertmilejczak/Documents/Projects/src/github.com /Users/robertmilejczak/Documents/Projects/src /Users/robertmilejczak/Documents/Projects /Users/robertmilejczak/Documents /Users/robertmilejczak /Users /] 
INFO [config_reader] Used config file ../.golangci.yml 
INFO [lintersdb] Active 23 linters: [bodyclose deadcode errcheck gochecknoinits goconst gocritic gocyclo goimports gosec gosimple govet ineffassign interfacer maligned misspell scopelint staticcheck structcheck typecheck unconvert unparam unused varcheck] 
INFO [loader] Go packages loading at mode 575 (types_sizes|deps|imports|name|compiled_files|exports_file|files) took 1.436796726s 
ERRO Running error: context loading failed: no go files to analyze 
INFO Memory: 16 samples, avg is 68.9MB, max is 68.9MB 
INFO Execution took 1.451511334s

[rmilejcz]

Disregard, for those getting a similar error message make sure you can build your project. I was able to figure out the issue by running

go test -v ./...

If possible, the error message context loading failed: no go files to analyze should be improved, especially when specifying verbose ouput.

[jirfag]

thank you, I think we need to fix error message

[alejandro-delgado-garcia]

Hi, I'm having the same issue even in latest version 1.21.0, any ideas what could be the issue? Thanks.

[rmilejcz]

The only advice I could give is to make sure your code is error free, run go build or go test to make sure that everything works as expected

[dackroyd]

This is tripping up our code formatting, as we've moved that to GolangCI Lint (running gofmt and goimports) rather than running those tools using locally installed versions. This is to ensure that a consistent toolset is used across all developers machines.

Goimports would normally clean up any import paths that don't exist (e.g. from code that has been removed), however when running in GolangCI Lint, this gives the no go files to analyze error instead

[alejandro-delgado-garcia]

We had to downgrade to 1.17 to make it to work and about goimports we had to disable it and use it standalone without golangci lint. Maybe we are doing something wrong but at least we found a way. I think the linter doesn't play nice with a multi go modules repository in our case, as we are using a mono repository with multiple go modules in it one per each service

[fdcds]

This issue has several duplicates: #855, #865, #870, #916.

[mr-tron]

For me it was connected to unupdated vendoring directory with enabled readonly mode.

[sam-github]

In wtfutil/wtf#895 I used args: ./... with golangci/[email protected] to avoid this, though I don't need to when running on my own machine.

[jirfag]

Hi,
there at least two different cases:

1. no go.mod on the root, it's only in the subdirectory. I think it should be fixed by specifying a working directory because all built-in Go tooling doesn't work with such cases. I've made Allow specifying directory golangci-lint-action#15 for our GitHub action.
2. timeout occurred during go/packages loading. The bug is in go/packages. We need help in fixing it and making a pull request to x/tools. The bug is in:

• pkgs, err := packages.Load(conf, args...)
• func goListDriver(cfg *Config, patterns ...string) (*driverResponse, error) {
• func (state *golistState) createDriverResponse(words ...string) (*driverResponse, error) {
• func (state *golistState) invokeGo(verb string, args ...string) (*bytes.Buffer, error) {
• stdout, stderr, _, err := gocmdRunner.RunRaw(cfg.Context, inv) - here we ignore firendlyErr which contains a context cancellation error. I guess the bug was introduced in this commit.
  To reproduce it run in the repo of golangci-lint:

golangci-lint cache clean && go clean -modcache -cache -i
golangci-lint run -v --timeout=5s

[wkoszek]

On Go 1.17.1 it worked OK. After I upgrade togo version go1.18.3 linux/amd64 I get an error from below.

go run github.com/jstemmer/gotags *.go > tags                  # tags for easy browsing
go run github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/cmd/golangci-lint run --fix --verbose
INFO [config_reader] Config search paths: [./ /mnt/red/workspace/wkoszek/XXX/cli /mnt/dddd/workspace/wkoszek/xxx /mnt/ddd/workspace/wkoszek /mnt/ddd/workspace /mnt/ddd /mnt / /home/wkoszek]
INFO [config_reader] Used config file .golangci.yml
INFO [lintersdb] Active 14 linters: [deadcode errcheck gofmt goimports gosimple govet ineffassign revive staticcheck structcheck stylecheck typecheck unused varcheck]
INFO [loader] Go packages loading at mode 575 (name|compiled_files|exports_file|files|types_sizes|deps|imports) took 35.407944402s
ERRO Running error: context loading failed: no go files to analyze
INFO Memory: 356 samples, avg is 23.1MB, max is 23.1MB
INFO Execution took 35.413440288s
exit status 5
make: *** [makefile:76: lint] Error 1

[xhd2015]

The only advice I could give is to make sure your code is error free, run go build or go test to make sure that everything works as expected

This answer should be promoted since it clearly addresses that the issue is actually caused by error resides in your project, not that golangci-lint cannot find any go files.

[WGrape]

The main reason is that your code failed to compile, maybe you forget to run godep save or go mod download in a new container.

I also got this problem with the output when running golangci-lint run --timeout=5m in gitlab-ci:

level=error msg="Running error: context loading failed: no go files to analyze"

When i add the command go build before golangci-lint run --timeout=5m，and i got this new output :

go: cannot find main module, but found Godeps/Godeps.json in xxx/xxx
	to create a module there, run:
	go mod init

So, i realized that i need download it's dependencies and compile it successfully.

[stevekuznetsov]

Just hit this because I needed to run go mod tidy. Would love to see an improvement to the error message. Using v1.49.0

[dianapicnic]

In my case the command below helped:

go mod tidy && go mod vendor

[berndschatz]

i can confirm this solution:

make

[...]
RRO Running error: context loading failed: no go files to analyze 
make: *** [Makefile:46: check-style] Error 5

$ go build
go: updates to go.mod needed; to update it:
	go mod tidy

$ go mod tidy
go: downloading github.com/jhump/protoreflect v1.6.0
go: downloading gopkg.in/check.v1 v1.0.0-20201130134442-10cb98267c6c
go: downloading github.com/xtgo/uuid v0.0.0-20140804021211-a0b114877d4c
go: downloading github.com/google/go-cmp v0.5.6
go: downloading github.com/kr/pretty v0.3.0
go: downloading github.com/dustin/go-humanize v1.0.0
go: downloading github.com/sirupsen/logrus v1.8.1
go: downloading github.com/BurntSushi/toml v0.3.1
go: downloading github.com/kr/text v0.2.0
go: downloading github.com/rogpeppe/go-internal v1.8.0
go: downloading golang.org/x/xerrors v0.0.0-20200804184101-5ec99f83aff1

[...]

$ make
Checking for style guide compliance
cd webapp && npm run lint

[...]

plugin built at: .......

Error message is not very helpful.

[nyetwurk]

We had a race condition in our CI where go mod tidy was not run before the cache was created, so golangci-lint was being run in an image with no go/pkg/mod files. There really should be a better error message for this.

However, even an additional go mod tidy does not always fix the problem.

$ ls -al go.mod go.sum
-rw-rw-rw-    1 root     root          6123 Nov  8 19:36 go.mod
-rw-rw-rw-    1 root     root        200250 Nov  8 19:36 go.sum
$ ls -al .go/pkg/mod || go mod tidy
total 72
drwxr-xr-x   18 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 .
drwxrwxrwx    3 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:36 ..
drwxr-xr-x    4 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 cache
drwxr-xr-x   11 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 cosmossdk.io
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 filippo.io
drwxr-xr-x   95 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 github.com
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 gitlab.com
drwxr-xr-x    6 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 go.blockdaemon.com
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 go.etcd.io
drwxr-xr-x    6 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 go.uber.org
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 golang.org
drwxr-xr-x    6 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 google.golang.org
drwxr-xr-x    6 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 gopkg.in
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 gotest.tools
dr-xr-xr-x   14 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 [email protected]+incompatible
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 nhooyr.io
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 pgregory.net
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root          4096 Nov  8 19:31 sigs.k8s.io
$ golangci-lint --version
golangci-lint has version v1.55.2 built with go1.21.3 from e3c2265f on 2023-11-03T13:27:48Z
$ golangci-lint -v run --timeout 10m --issues-exit-code 0
level=info msg="[config_reader] Config search paths: [./ XXX  / /root]"
level=info msg="[lintersdb] Active 6 linters: [errcheck gosimple govet ineffassign staticcheck unused]"
level=info msg="[loader] Go packages loading at mode 575 (types_sizes|compiled_files|exports_file|imports|name|deps|files) took 1.328024256s"
level=error msg="Running error: context loading failed: no go files to analyze"
level=info msg="Memory: 15 samples, avg is 22.8MB, max is 22.8MB"
level=info msg="Execution took 1.333339766s"

[dkegel-fastly]

We just had a problem in CI where, through a long chain of quirks, the source tree was incomplete... and we didn't verify it built before running lint. Hilarity ensued (with an error like can't run linter goanalysis_metalinter: inspect: failed to load package foo: could not load export data: no export data for...).

Could golangci-lint check somehow that the project had built? In CI, this could be rather helpful.

[BedivereZero]

When obtaining go modules fails, golangci-lint will report the error "no go files to analyze". The error message is inaccurate.

$ go mod download
...
verifying devops.example.org/Organization/Project/_git/[email protected]: checksum mismatch
	downloaded: h1:Ai9O0FGo9bcG8dkMxjZ2KPPMcrchs3lDItWduc2ht5Q=
	go.sum:     h1:Wto2v4Zv6gZrSppDzaSIJIuwFOMNM77EckvPIoVbsRw=

$ golangci-lint
Running error: context loading failed: no go files to analyze

[ldez]

go mod download != go mod tidy

You have to use go mod tidy

[BedivereZero]

go mod download != go mod tidy

You have to use go mod tidy

To reproduce this error, these conditions are required:

1. already run go mod tidy, there are go.mod and go.sum in repository's root
2. a go module in go.mod has change，for example the git tag v1.0.4 has been re-created to another git commit
3. there is no go model local cache, like pipeline environment
4. run golangci-lint run

[ldez]

a go module in go.mod has change，for example the git tag v1.0.4 has been re-created to another git commit

This should never happen: tag re-creation is strictly forbidden by the Go modules system.
A tag should be retracted but never re-created.

[Integralist]

I'm seeing this issue currently.

I can run golangci-lint run --verbose ./cmd/check/... successfully and the CLI will report back a ton of issues with the code...

But the moment I open that file in Neovim I only see this...