Configuration

Default and opt-in checks

An ordinary run uses gohawk’s conservative default set. The analyzer catalog marks anything outside that set with *. Opt-in analyzers can be selected by name, as part of a group, or with -enable-all. An individually opt-in check can be selected by its stable ID or with -enable-all.

Use gohawk list to see analyzers, or gohawk list -checks to see stable check IDs. Default entries have no marker.

gohawk list
gohawk list -checks

Select analyzers

Running gohawk without selection flags uses the default set. Entries marked * in the analyzer reference are available but do not run automatically. Use -enable to run named analyzers or -disable to remove analyzers from the ordinary run. Selecting an analyzer runs its ordinary checks. Selecting a group runs every analyzer in that group, including opt-in analyzers, but still excludes checks that require individual selection. Disabled groups are removed from the selected set. Group and individual selections combine, with individual analyzer selections taking precedence.

# List every analyzer with its group; * means opt-in.
gohawk list

# Inspect an analyzer or one stable check.
gohawk doc contextpolicy
gohawk doc contextpolicy/nil-context

# List stable check IDs; * means opt-in.
gohawk list -checks

# List only defaults or only opt-in entries.
gohawk list -defaults
gohawk list -opt-in

# Run two opt-in analyzers.
gohawk -enable=wirepolicy,globalstate ./...

# Run every ownership and testing analyzer with their ordinary checks.
gohawk -enable-groups=ownership,testing ./...

# Add one analyzer from another group, or exclude one from a selected group.
gohawk -enable-groups=ownership -enable=wirepolicy -disable=channelpolicy ./...

# Run the ordinary set without the reliability and testing groups.
gohawk -disable-groups=reliability,testing ./...

# Run everything except testing analyzers.
gohawk -enable-all -disable-groups=testing ./...

# Run the ordinary set except oncepolicy.
gohawk -disable=oncepolicy ./...

# Keep contextpolicy enabled, but disable its context-storage check.
gohawk -disable-checks=contextpolicy/context-storage ./...

# Run one opt-in check by itself.
gohawk -enable-checks=contextpolicy/test-context ./...

# Add an opt-in check to an analyzer's ordinary checks.
gohawk -enable=contextpolicy -enable-checks=contextpolicy/test-context ./...

# Run every analyzer and every check, including opt-in checks.
gohawk -enable-all ./...

Analyzer names are values of -enable and -disable, not Boolean flags. Use -disable=wirepolicy rather than -wirepolicy=false. The same selectors are available when gohawk runs through go vet -vettool.

-enable-checks runs exactly the named checks when used alone and implicitly activates their owning analyzers. When combined with an analyzer or group selection, it adds those checks to the selected analyzers’ ordinary checks. -disable-checks removes individual checks afterward. Both flags accept comma-separated stable IDs shown by gohawk list -checks. If all of an analyzer’s checks are disabled, gohawk skips that analyzer’s analysis. Unknown, repeated, and empty check IDs are errors rather than silent typos.

Set analyzer options

Analyzer options use standard go/analysis flags and work with both gohawk and go vet -vettool=.... Prefix an option with its analyzer name:

gohawk -enable=goroutineownership -goroutineownership.mode=join ./...
gohawk -enable=contextpolicy -contextpolicy.prefer-test-context=false ./...

Each configurable analyzer lists its options on its own page in the analyzer reference.

Preview and apply suggested fixes

Some diagnostics include a source edit that gohawk can apply automatically. Use gohawk doc <analyzer> to check the Suggested fixes field for an analyzer:

gohawk doc wirepolicy

Preview the edits as a unified diff without changing any files:

gohawk -enable=wirepolicy -fix -diff ./...

Apply those edits by omitting -diff:

gohawk -enable=wirepolicy -fix ./...

Analyzer, group, check, and option flags select diagnostics in the same way as an ordinary run. A fix-capable analyzer may still omit a fix when it cannot produce one safely for a particular finding. Review the resulting diff and run the project’s tests after applying changes:

git diff
go test ./...

Suppress a finding

Put //gohawk:ignore <analyzer> [reason] on the flagged line or the line above:

//gohawk:ignore goroutineownership worker belongs to the process lifecycle
go serveMetrics()

Ignores apply to one analyzer. The reason is optional.