[staticcheck,SA5011] false positives in tests #5979
Description
Welcome
- Yes, I'm using a binary release within 2 latest releases. Only such installations are supported.
- Yes, I've searched similar issues on GitHub and didn't find any.
- Yes, I've read the
typechecksection of the FAQ. - Yes, I've tried with the standalone linter if available (e.g., gocritic, go vet, etc.).
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How did you install golangci-lint?
Official GitHub Action
Description of the problem
In our repo (https://github.com/opencontainers/runc) we use golangci-lint action, and from time to time I see false positives like this:
Error: libcontainer/capabilities/capabilities_linux_test.go:53:5: SA5011(related information): this check suggests that the pointer can be nil (staticcheck) if l == nil { ^ Error: libcontainer/capabilities/capabilities_linux_test.go:56:7: SA5011: possible nil pointer dereference (staticcheck) if l.Level != expectedLogs.Level { ^ Error: libcontainer/configs/tocpuset_test.go:81:7: SA5011(related information): this check suggests that the pointer can be nil (staticcheck) if out == nil { ^ Error: libcontainer/configs/tocpuset_test.go:84:7: SA5011: possible nil pointer dereference (staticcheck) if *out != *tc.out { ^ Error: libcontainer/system/kernelversion/kernel_linux_test.go:32:5: SA5011(related information): this check suggests that the pointer can be nil (staticcheck) if version == nil { ^ Error: libcontainer/system/kernelversion/kernel_linux_test.go:35:13: SA5011: possible nil pointer dereference (staticcheck) if version.Kernel == 0 { ^ 6 issues: * staticcheck: 6 In all 3 cases, the code looks like this:
if l == nil { t.Fatal("expected a warning, but got none") } if l.Level != expectedLogs.Level { t.Errorf("expected %q, got %q", expectedLogs.Level, l.Level) }NOTE
- this does not happens always, but occasionally, from time to time;
- re-running the same job does not help;
- clearing golangci-cache always helps.
My gut feeling this is something related to the cache.
Here is a run which uses cache (with false positives): https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/actions/runs/16771007365/job/47485871649
Here's a second run (no changes): https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/actions/runs/16771007365/job/47536430979
Here's a third run, with the cache (golangci-lint.cache-Linux-2900-07b6deaeaf77c89136c312b904939c6615b804c9') manually removed, (no more false positives): https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/actions/runs/16771007365/job/47536777801
What puzzles me is the last job still says:
Cache hit for: golangci-lint.cache-Linux-2900-07b6deaeaf77c89136c312b904939c6615b804c9 Received 641357 of 641357 (100.0%), 9.7 MBs/sec Cache Size: ~1 MB (641357 B) /usr/bin/tar -xf /home/runner/work/_temp/f540f2d7-e2d1-4b51-9da4-0209e70389ca/cache.tzst -P -C /home/runner/work/runc/runc --use-compress-program unzstd Cache restored successfully Restored cache for golangci-lint from key 'golangci-lint.cache-Linux-2900-07b6deaeaf77c89136c312b904939c6615b804c9' in 404ms although I manually removed this very cache just before re-running the job, so something might be wrong in github actions department, too.
Version of golangci-lint
From the gha log:
Finding needed golangci-lint version... Requested golangci-lint 'v2.3', using 'v2.3.1', calculation took 56ms Installation mode: binary Installing golangci-lint binary v2.3.1... Downloading binary https://github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/releases/download/v2.3.1/golangci-lint-2.3.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz ... /usr/bin/tar xz --overwrite --warning=no-unknown-keyword --overwrite -C /home/runner -f /home/runner/work/_temp/f2018b3e-500b-44ad-a3d6-5109026baf62 Installed golangci-lint into /home/runner/golangci-lint-2.3.1-linux-amd64/golangci-lint in 435ms Prepared env in 896ms Configuration
See https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/blob/127e8e68d335aa7b908c7822fa985629d8fbe81d/.golangci.yml
Go environment
From the job logs:
Run actions/setup-go@v5 with: go-version: 1.24 check-latest: false token: *** cache: true env: GO_VERSION: 1.24 Setup go version spec 1.24 Found in cache @ /opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.24.5/x64 Added go to the path Successfully set up Go version 1.24 /opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.24.5/x64/bin/go env GOMODCACHE /opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.24.5/x64/bin/go env GOCACHE /home/runner/go/pkg/mod /home/runner/.cache/go-build Cache hit for: setup-go-Linux-x64-ubuntu24-go-1.24.5-2a435ec440cb466e7517b049c14e40c85fd4691bea511023e036a40f9c346cf3 Received 18690705 of 18690705 (100.0%), 87.4 MBs/sec Cache Size: ~18 MB (18690705 B) /usr/bin/tar -xf /home/runner/work/_temp/1a117bb1-dab9-4a76-899d-e2661d1695d1/cache.tzst -P -C /home/runner/work/runc/runc --use-compress-program unzstd Cache restored successfully Cache restored from key: setup-go-Linux-x64-ubuntu24-go-1.24.5-2a435ec440cb466e7517b049c14e40c85fd4691bea511023e036a40f9c346cf3 go version go1.24.5 linux/amd64 go env 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/runner/.cache/go-build' GOCACHEPROG='' GODEBUG='' GOENV='/home/runner/.config/go/env' GOEXE='' GOEXPERIMENT='' GOFIPS140='off' GOFLAGS='' GOGCCFLAGS='-fPIC -m64 -pthread -Wl,--no-gc-sections -fmessage-length=0 -ffile-prefix-map=/tmp/go-build444757353=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches' GOHOSTARCH='amd64' GOHOSTOS='linux' GOINSECURE='' GOMOD='/home/runner/work/runc/runc/go.mod' GOMODCACHE='/home/runner/go/pkg/mod' GONOPROXY='' GONOSUMDB='' GOOS='linux' GOPATH='/home/runner/go' GOPRIVATE='' GOPROXY='https://proxy.golang.org,direct/' GOROOT='/opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.24.5/x64' GOSUMDB='sum.golang.org' GOTELEMETRY='local' GOTELEMETRYDIR='/home/runner/.config/go/telemetry' GOTMPDIR='' GOTOOLCHAIN='auto' GOTOOLDIR='/opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.24.5/x64/pkg/tool/linux_amd64' GOVCS='' GOVERSION='go1.24.5' GOWORK='' PKG_CONFIG='pkg-config' Verbose output of running
I can't reproduce it locally.
A minimal reproducible example or link to a public repository
See above.
Validation
- Yes, I've included all information above (version, config, etc.).
Supporter
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