golangci/golangci-lint · error

error while running %s: %w

Error message

error while running %s: %w

What it means

A configured formatter (gofmt, gofumpt, goimports, gci, etc.) returned an error while formatting the file's bytes. golangci-lint wraps the failure with the formatter's name so the user knows which formatter failed. This is a formatter-internal failure, not a lint finding.

Source

Thrown at pkg/goformatters/analyzer.go:36

func NewAnalyzer(logger logutils.Log, doc string, formatter Formatter) *analysis.Analyzer {
	return &analysis.Analyzer{
		Name: formatter.Name(),
		Doc:  doc,
		Run: func(pass *analysis.Pass) (any, error) {
			for _, file := range pass.Files {
				position, isGoFile := goanalysis.GetGoFilePosition(pass, file)
				if !isGoFile {
					continue
				}

				input, err := os.ReadFile(position.Filename)
				if err != nil {
					return nil, fmt.Errorf("unable to open file %s: %w", position.Filename, err)
				}

				output, err := formatter.Format(position.Filename, input)
				if err != nil {
					return nil, fmt.Errorf("error while running %s: %w", formatter.Name(), err)
				}

				if !bytes.Equal(input, output) {
					newName := filepath.ToSlash(position.Filename)
					oldName := newName + ".orig"

					patch := diff.Diff(oldName, input, newName, output)

					err = internal.ExtractDiagnosticFromPatch(pass, file, patch, logger)
					if err != nil {
						return nil, fmt.Errorf("can't extract issues from %s diff output %q: %w", formatter.Name(), patch, err)
					}
				}
			}

			return nil, nil
		},
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to ed7a235d2d)

Solutions

1. Fix the syntax errors in the offending file (`go build`/`gofmt -l` to locate)
2. Check formatter settings under formatters section of .golangci.yml for invalid options
3. Update or pin a compatible formatter version in go.mod tools
4. Exclude the problematic file via formatters.exclusions.paths if it is intentionally invalid

Example fix

# before: formatter option typo
formatters:
  settings:
    goimports:
      local-prefixes: [unclosed
# after
formatters:
  settings:
    goimports:
      local-prefixes:
        - github.com/my/org

// ensure the file parses before formatter runs
if _, err := parser.ParseFile(fset, path, nil, parser.AllErrors); err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("invalid Go source: %v", err)
}

// identify which formatter failed from the wrapped message
if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error while running gofumpt") {
    // fix file syntax or gofumpt settings
}

When it happens

Trigger: formatter.Format(filename, input) returns non-nil — e.g. gofumpt/goimports choke on syntactically invalid Go source, or a formatter subprocess/config option is invalid.

Common situations: Linting files with intentional syntax errors or placeholder code; incompatible formatter version pinned in tools; invalid formatter settings in .golangci.yml (e.g. bad goimports local-prefixes).

Related errors

• can't get enabled formatters: %w
• failed to create meta-formatter: %w
• can't combine option --config and --no-config
• failed to create meta-formatter: %w
• build walk options: %w

AI-assisted analysis of golangci/golangci-lint@ed7a235d2d (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/857041e7a0fbfcf5. Report an issue: GitHub.