TIL: go vet and staticcheck for linting and analysis

go vet is a command shipped with the Go toolchain that finds errors and issues not detected by the compiler. It uses a set of heuristics to scan Go packages. To vet your current package, you can just run go vet from a terminal while in the same folder as the package. The list of heuristics and deeper instructions for using the command can be found at pkg.go.dev/cmd/vet.

Staticcheck is a linter provided as its own package. The easiest way to install it is through the go install command:

go install honnef.co/go/tools/cmd/staticcheck@latest

This installs the tool in your $GOPATH/bin. This runs its own suite of style rules and other static analysis to detect common problems with Go code. You can simply run it from the terminal by typing its command staticcheck while in the same folder as a Go package. More info at the Staticcheck docs.

Tags: til golang