fieldalignment: struct with X pointer bytes could be Y (govet)

[atc0005]

Linting issues exposed by the changes in atc0005/go-ci#287 and atc0005/go-ci#288:

internal/config/types.go:165:12: fieldalignment: struct with 80 pointer bytes could be 64 (govet)
type Email struct {
           ^
internal/config/types.go:269:21: fieldalignment: struct with 296 pointer bytes could be 280 (govet)
type configTemplate struct {
                    ^
internal/events/payload.go:44:14: fieldalignment: struct with 752 pointer bytes could be 744 (govet)
        Result      struct {
                    ^
internal/events/payload.go:168:23: fieldalignment: struct with 152 pointer bytes could be 144 (govet)
type SplunkAlertEvent struct {
                      ^
internal/files/files.go:43:15: fieldalignment: struct with 48 pointer bytes could be 40 (govet)
type FlatFile struct {
              ^
internal/files/files.go:70:20: fieldalignment: struct with 80 pointer bytes could be 72 (govet)
type DisabledUsers struct {
                   ^
internal/files/files.go:96:28: fieldalignment: struct with 96 pointer bytes could be 88 (govet)
type ReportedUserEventsLog struct {
                           ^
cmd/brick/message.go:499:18: fieldalignment: struct with 120 pointer bytes could be 64 (govet)
type emailConfig struct {
                 ^
cmd/brick/message.go:528:10: fieldalignment: struct with 264 pointer bytes could be 256 (govet)
        data := struct {
                ^
cmd/brick/notify.go:35:19: fieldalignment: struct with 32 pointer bytes could be 24 (govet)
type NotifyResult struct {
                  ^
cmd/brick/notify.go:53:18: fieldalignment: struct with 32 pointer bytes could be 24 (govet)
type NotifyQueue struct {
                 ^

[atc0005]

For at least one of the structs I've either found a bug in the fieldalignment linter, or I just don't understand how to properly align the struct.

Reproduced here:

• https://github.com/atc0005/help-requests/blob/master/go/struct-alignment/main.go
• https://github.com/atc0005/help-requests#struct-field-alignment
• https://play.golang.org/p/DxWIJd_OgPM

Posted in Gophers Slack to see if anyone can point me in the right direction.

[atc0005]

Never heard back from Twitter or Gophers Slack posts.

Opened an upstream bug report, was kindly told that I misunderstood the problem. Instead of the struct size not being aligned, it was the pointer bytes that the garbage collector had to pass through (paraphrasing) in order to check the struct fields.

The developer of the https://github.com/mdempsky/maligned project has indicated that the "pointer bytes" diagnostic has limited value and should be hidden from users by default.

I'm going to consider this a non-issue for now.

See atc0005/go-ci#302 for more information.