golint-sl

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goroutineleak

About 231 words

Detects goroutines that may never terminate.

Category

Safety

What It Checks

This analyzer detects goroutines that:

  • Block forever on channels
  • Have no exit condition
  • Ignore context cancellation

Why It Matters

Leaked goroutines:

  • Consume memory indefinitely
  • Hold references preventing GC
  • Eventually exhaust resources

Examples

Bad: Unbounded Goroutine

func StartWorker() {
    go func() {
        for {
            doWork()  // Never exits!
        }
    }()
}

Good: Context-Aware Goroutine

func StartWorker(ctx context.Context) {
    go func() {
        for {
            select {
            case <-ctx.Done():
                return  // Clean exit
            default:
                doWork()
            }
        }
    }()
}

Bad: Blocking Channel

func Process(items []Item) {
    results := make(chan Result)

    for _, item := range items {
        go func(item Item) {
            results <- process(item)  // Blocks if no receiver!
        }(item)
    }

    // If we only read some results, goroutines leak
    return <-results
}

Good: Buffered Channel

func Process(items []Item) []Result {
    results := make(chan Result, len(items))

    for _, item := range items {
        go func(item Item) {
            results <- process(item)
        }(item)
    }

    var out []Result
    for range items {
        out = append(out, <-results)
    }
    return out
}

Good: WaitGroup Pattern

func Process(ctx context.Context, items []Item) {
    var wg sync.WaitGroup

    for _, item := range items {
        wg.Add(1)
        go func(item Item) {
            defer wg.Done()
            processWithContext(ctx, item)
        }(item)
    }

    wg.Wait()
}

Configuration

# .golint-sl.yaml
analyzers:
  goroutineleak: true  # enabled by default

When to Disable

  • Simple scripts without long-running goroutines
analyzers:
  goroutineleak: false