unused linter does not detect unused exported fields

[mcastorina]

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

Description of the problem

The unused linter does not detect unused exported struct members when "exported-fields-are-used" configuration is set to false.

Version of golangci-lint

$ golangci-lint --version
golangci-lint has version 1.60.3 built with go1.23.0 from c2e095c on 2024-08-22T21:45:24Z

Configuration

--config <(echo '{"linters-settings":{"unused":{"exported-fields-are-used":false}}}')

this is equivalent to the yaml config

linter-settings:
  unused:
    exported-fields-are-used: false

Go environment

$ go version && go env
go version go1.23.0 darwin/arm64
GO111MODULE=''
GOARCH='arm64'
GOBIN=''
GOEXE=''
GOEXPERIMENT=''
GOFLAGS=''
GOHOSTARCH='arm64'
GOHOSTOS='darwin'
GOINSECURE=''
GONOPROXY=''
GONOSUMDB=''
GOOS='darwin'
GOPRIVATE=''
GOPROXY='https://proxy.golang.org,direct'
GOROOT='/opt/homebrew/Cellar/go/1.23.0/libexec'
GOSUMDB='sum.golang.org'
GOTMPDIR=''
GOTOOLCHAIN='local'
GOTOOLDIR='/opt/homebrew/Cellar/go/1.23.0/libexec/pkg/tool/darwin_arm64'
GOVCS=''
GOVERSION='go1.23.0'
GODEBUG=''
GOTELEMETRY='local'
GCCGO='gccgo'
GOARM64='v8.0'
AR='ar'
CC='cc'
CXX='c++'
CGO_ENABLED='1'
GOMOD='/dev/null'
GOWORK=''
CGO_CFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_CPPFLAGS=''
CGO_CXXFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_FFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_LDFLAGS='-O2 -g'
PKG_CONFIG='pkg-config'
GOGCCFLAGS='-fPIC -arch arm64 -pthread -fno-caret-diagnostics -Qunused-arguments -fmessage-length=0 -ffile-prefix-map=/var/folders/s2/32jxgw6j2tl3lr6q7_p_0_th0000gn/T/go-build3082553639=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches -fno-common'

Verbose output of running

$ golangci-lint cache clean
$ golangci-lint run --config <(echo '{"linters-settings":{"unused":{"exported-fields-are-used":false}}}') blah.go -v
INFO golangci-lint has version 1.60.3 built with go1.23.0 from c2e095c on 2024-08-22T21:45:24Z
INFO [config_reader] Used config file ../../dev/fd/11
INFO [lintersdb] Active 6 linters: [errcheck gosimple govet ineffassign staticcheck unused]
INFO [loader] Go packages loading at mode 575 (files|types_sizes|exports_file|deps|imports|name|compiled_files) took 67.919958ms
INFO [runner/filename_unadjuster] Pre-built 0 adjustments in 126.334µs
INFO [linters_context/goanalysis] analyzers took 853.935539ms with top 10 stages: buildir: 636.946627ms, printf: 33.912087ms, SA5012: 29.531086ms, ctrlflow: 29.333536ms, fact_deprecated: 27.19442ms, inspect: 26.515128ms, nilness: 23.992833ms, fact_purity: 23.913584ms, typedness: 19.195332ms, tokenfileanalyzer: 2.332332ms
INFO [runner] processing took 2.086µs with stages: max_same_issues: 375ns, filename_unadjuster: 208ns, skip_dirs: 167ns, identifier_marker: 167ns, nolint: 167ns, path_prettifier: 125ns, skip_files: 125ns, source_code: 125ns, cgo: 125ns, invalid_issue: 125ns, path_shortener: 42ns, uniq_by_line: 42ns, fixer: 42ns, max_per_file_from_linter: 42ns, autogenerated_exclude: 42ns, diff: 42ns, exclude: 42ns, max_from_linter: 42ns, sort_results: 41ns, path_prefixer: 0s, exclude-rules: 0s, severity-rules: 0s
INFO [runner] linters took 581.634083ms with stages: goanalysis_metalinter: 581.611875ms
INFO File cache stats: 0 entries of total size 0B
INFO Memory: 8 samples, avg is 150.9MB, max is 231.2MB
INFO Execution took 657.469ms

A minimal reproducible example or link to a public repository

package main

import "fmt"

type Foo struct {
	Bar string
	Baz string
}

func main() {
	f := Foo{}
	fmt.Println(f.Baz)
}

Please note: if you unexport Bar, the linter works as expected.

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]

duplicate of #4218