golangci/golangci-lint · error

can't get enabled linters: %w

Error message

can't get enabled linters: %w

What it means

The `linters` command's execute wraps errors from dbManager.GetEnabledLintersMap(), which computes the set of linters enabled by the loaded configuration. Unlike config errors, this fires after the config loaded successfully, when combining enabled-linter sets (e.g. conflicting presets or plugin loading issues) produces an inconsistency.

Source

Thrown at pkg/commands/linters.go:93

	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("can't load config: %w", err)
	}

	dbManager, err := lintersdb.NewManager(c.log.Child(logutils.DebugKeyLintersDB), c.cfg,
		lintersdb.NewLinterBuilder(), lintersdb.NewPluginModuleBuilder(c.log), lintersdb.NewPluginGoBuilder(c.log))
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	c.dbManager = dbManager

	return nil
}

func (c *lintersCommand) execute(_ *cobra.Command, _ []string) error {
	enabledLintersMap, err := c.dbManager.GetEnabledLintersMap()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("can't get enabled linters: %w", err)
	}

	var enabledLinters []*linter.Config
	var disabledLinters []*linter.Config

	for _, lc := range c.dbManager.GetAllSupportedLinterConfigs() {
		if lc.Internal {
			continue
		}

		if goformatters.IsFormatter(lc.Name()) {
			continue
		}

		if enabledLintersMap[lc.Name()] == nil {
			disabledLinters = append(disabledLinters, lc)
		} else {
			enabledLinters = append(enabledLinters, lc)

View on GitHub (pinned to ed7a235d2d)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped cause after 'can't get enabled linters:' for the specific linter or plugin involved.
2. Remove duplicate entries where a linter is enabled both via a preset (e.g. presets: [style]) and linters.enable.
3. If using Go plugins, rebuild the .so with the exact same Go and golangci-lint versions, or migrate to the plugin module (GoModules) mechanism.
4. Disable plugins temporarily in the config to confirm they are the cause.

Example fix

// before (.golangci.yml)
linters:
  presets:
    - style   # includes gocritic
  enable:
    - gocritic  # duplicate enable
// after
linters:
  presets:
    - style

// pre-check config for duplicate linter enables (preset + explicit)
linters := cfg.Linters.Enable
seen := map[string]bool{}
for _, l := range linters {
    if seen[l] { return fmt.Errorf("linter %s enabled twice", l) }
    seen[l] = true
}

if err := cmd.Execute(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "can't get enabled linters") {
        // inspect plugin/preset conflicts in config; disable plugins to isolate
    }
    os.Exit(1)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling GetEnabledLintersMap during `golangci-lint linters` when the manager cannot resolve the enabled linters — typically duplicate/conflicting linter settings or a plugin builder failing to register a plugin linter.

Common situations: A config enabling the same linter twice (via presets and explicit enable), a Go plugin (.so) that cannot be built/loaded for the current golangci-lint/platform, or custom plugin modules whose module path is wrong.

Related errors

• can't load config: %w
• can't combine option --config and --no-config
• update plugin file: %w
• hash plugin directory: %w
• saving configuration file: %w

AI-assisted analysis of golangci/golangci-lint@ed7a235d2d (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b6da589896a27a69. Report an issue: GitHub.