go-test-only-linter

golangci-lint doesn't spot functions that are only used in tests - ideally these should be declared as unused. This tool will identify this kind of unused code.

NOTE: This will highlight exported code in libraries that is not used within the library itself.

Usage

Run

make install

to install go-test-only-linter.

To use the tool on all code:

go-test-only-linter path/to/main.go ./...

How it Works

1. Builds an unoptimised binary with go build -o unoptimised-binary -gcflags '-N -l' path/to/main.go.
   • It must be unoptimised otherwise functions may be inlined, leading to false positives.
2. Crawls over the ast of your go files to determine which functions are declared:
   • Normal functions: func myFunction(...)
   • Receiver functions: func (r receiver) myReceiverFunction(...)
   • Pointer receiver functions: func (r *receiver) myPointerReceiverFunction(...)
3. Prints out functions which are not used.
4. Removes unoptimised-binary