golangci/golangci-lint · error

can't get relative path for path %s and root %s: %w

Error message

can't get relative path for path %s and root %s: %w

What it means

Wrapping error in ShortestRelPath: filepath.Rel(wd, absPath) failed after resolving the path against the working directory. Rel rarely fails — typically the wd could not be made relative to the target (e.g. mismatched roots on Windows or a wd that no longer exists).

Source

Thrown at pkg/fsutils/fsutils.go:97

	evaluatedPath, err := EvalSymlinks(path)
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("can't eval symlinks for path %s: %w", path, err)
	}
	path = evaluatedPath

	// make path absolute and then relative to be able to fix this case:
	// we are in `/test` dir, we want to normalize `../test`, and have file `file.go` in this dir;
	// it must have normalized path `file.go`, not `../test/file.go`,
	var absPath string
	if filepath.IsAbs(path) {
		absPath = path
	} else {
		absPath = filepath.Join(wd, path)
	}

	relPath, err := filepath.Rel(wd, absPath)
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("can't get relative path for path %s and root %s: %w",
			absPath, wd, err)
	}

	return relPath, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to ed7a235d2d)

Solutions

1. Verify the working directory and target path share a valid root
2. Check that the wd exists and is a directory
3. Inspect the wrapped error for the exact Rel failure reason

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at pkg/fsutils/fsutils.go:97 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of golangci/golangci-lint@ed7a235d2d (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c29f58952a498e5b. Report an issue: GitHub.