gofmt can't be used as a linter

[mhemeryck]

Welcome

• Yes, I'm using a binary release within 2 latest releases. Only such installations are supported.
• Yes, I've searched similar issues on GitHub and didn't find any.
• Yes, I've read the typecheck section of the FAQ.
• Yes, I've tried with the standalone linter if available (e.g., gocritic, go vet, etc.).
• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

How did you install golangci-lint?

Docker

Description of the problem

We were using the golangci linter as part of a CI/CD pipeline against a moving docker image tag.

Consequently, when v2 was made available, all of a sudden, our job started failing.

I did try to migrate our current setup over to v2, but I did notice that our current code fails for the case where we configure gofmt as part of the linter.

Full setup; invocation:

golangci-lint run -v

config file:

version: "2"

linters:
  default: none
  enable:
    - gofmt
    - gosec
run:
  timeout: 10m
  issues-exit-code: 0
output:
  formats:
    text:
      print-issued-lines: false
    code-climate:
      path: gl-code-quality-report.json

Error message:

Error: can't load config: gofmt is a formatter
Failed executing command with error: can't load config: gofmt is a formatter

Version info: we used golangci/golangci-lint:latest-alpine the logs mention (redacted):

level=info msg="golangci-lint has version 2.0.1 built with go1.24.1 from e8927ce2 on 2025-03-24T20:34:31Z"
...
Using docker image sha256:80a23913b76757104bb082e05fc7521ec5c4dd548071433410b1ac44511be8ba for golangci/golangci-lint:latest-alpine with digest golangci/golangci-lint@sha256:66854a432087d43cee95e82406b895f93a2cf6448e3edc67f46ce057dab07c7a ...
..

My guess is that the issue lies here:

golangci-lint/pkg/config/linters.go

Line 43 in 474ac3e

if slices.Contains(getAllFormatterNames(), n) {

The code checks whether linter isn't a formatter. For gofmt, it's actually both a formatter and a linter, hence the issue.

Version of golangci-lint

$ golangci-lint --version
golangci-lint has version 2.0.1 built with go1.24.1 from e8927ce2 on 2025-03-24T20:34:31Z

Configuration

version: "2"

linters:
  default: none
  enable:
    - gofmt
    - gosec
run:
  timeout: 10m
  issues-exit-code: 0
output:
  formats:
    text:
      print-issued-lines: false
    code-climate:
      path: gl-code-quality-report.json

Go environment

$ go version && go env
# paste output here

Verbose output of running

level=info msg="[config_reader] Used config file .golangci.yml"
Error: can't load config: gofmt is a formatter
Failed executing command with error: can't load config: gofmt is a formatter

A minimal reproducible example or link to a public repository

// add your code here

Validation

• Yes, I've included all information above (version, config, etc.).

Supporter

• I am a sponsor/backer through GitHub or OpenCollective

[boring-cyborg]

Hey, thank you for opening your first Issue ! 🙂 If you would like to contribute we have a guide for contributors.

[ldez]

Hello,

gofmt cannot be defined in the linters section.

There is a dedicated formatters section.

I recommend using the migration command.

I also recommend reading my article.

[mhemeryck]

Thank you for taking the time to explain this; it indeed now works!

I did try at first to use the migration tool, but I only had access to the tool in the CI and no easy way to run it locally.

btw, another thing I missed in the docs was the requirement for a version field in the new config file format, wasn't obvious to me from https://golangci-lint.run/usage/configuration/

Anyways, the issue is resolved for me now.