golint-sl

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GitHub Actions Integration

About 565 wordsAbout 2 min

2025-01-16

Run golint-sl on every pull request to catch issues before they're merged. golint-sl runs as a golangci-lint module plugin, so your CI workflow builds a custom binary and runs it.

Basic Workflow

Create .github/workflows/lint.yaml:

name: Lint

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
        with:
          go-version: '1.22'
          cache: true

      - name: Install golangci-lint
        run: |
          curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/golangci/golangci-lint/master/install.sh | sh -s -- -b $(go env GOPATH)/bin v2.8.0

      - name: Build custom golangci-lint with golint-sl
        run: golangci-lint custom

      - name: Run linter
        run: ./custom-gcl run ./...

This requires two config files in your repository:

.custom-gcl.yml:

version: v2.8.0

plugins:
  - module: 'github.com/spechtlabs/golint-sl'
    version: v0.1.0

.golangci.yml:

version: "2"

linters:
  enable:
    - golint-sl

  settings:
    custom:
      golint-sl:
        type: module
        description: SpechtLabs Go linter collection
        original-url: github.com/spechtlabs/golint-sl

With Binary Caching

Building the custom binary takes time. Cache it for faster CI runs:

name: Lint

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
        with:
          go-version: '1.22'
          cache: true

      - name: Install golangci-lint
        run: |
          curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/golangci/golangci-lint/master/install.sh | sh -s -- -b $(go env GOPATH)/bin v2.8.0

      - name: Cache custom golangci-lint
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        id: cache-custom-gcl
        with:
          path: ./custom-gcl
          key: custom-gcl-${{ hashFiles('.custom-gcl.yml', 'go.sum') }}

      - name: Build custom golangci-lint with golint-sl
        if: steps.cache-custom-gcl.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
        run: golangci-lint custom

      - name: Run linter
        run: ./custom-gcl run ./...

Pinned Versions

Pin both golangci-lint and golint-sl versions for reproducible builds. golangci-lint is pinned in the install step, and golint-sl is pinned in .custom-gcl.yml:

# .custom-gcl.yml
version: v2.8.0  # Pin golangci-lint version

plugins:
  - module: 'github.com/spechtlabs/golint-sl'
    version: v0.1.0  # Pin golint-sl version

With Configuration File

If you have a .golangci.yml with analyzer settings, it's automatically used:

# .golangci.yml
version: "2"

linters:
  enable:
    - golint-sl

  settings:
    custom:
      golint-sl:
        type: module
        description: SpechtLabs Go linter collection
        original-url: github.com/spechtlabs/golint-sl
        settings:
          disabled-analyzers:
            - reconciler
            - statusupdate
            - sideeffects

No changes needed to the workflow — the config is picked up automatically.

Alongside Other Linters

Run golint-sl alongside your existing golangci-lint linters. Since golint-sl is a plugin, all linters run in a single ./custom-gcl run invocation:

# .golangci.yml
version: "2"

linters:
  enable:
    - golint-sl
    - govet
    - staticcheck
    - errcheck

  settings:
    custom:
      golint-sl:
        type: module
        description: SpechtLabs Go linter collection
        original-url: github.com/spechtlabs/golint-sl
# In your workflow
- name: Run linter
  run: ./custom-gcl run ./...  # Runs all enabled linters including golint-sl

Fail on Issues

By default, ./custom-gcl run exits with code 1 when issues are found, which fails the GitHub Actions job. This is the desired behavior for most projects.

To make issues non-blocking (warning only):

- name: Run linter
  run: ./custom-gcl run ./... || true
  continue-on-error: true

Not Recommended

Making lint failures non-blocking reduces the value of the check. Consider fixing issues instead of ignoring them.

Pull Request Annotations

GitHub Actions automatically converts tool output to PR annotations when using the standard format (which golangci-lint uses). Issues appear directly on the changed lines in the PR diff.

Next Steps