exportloopref

An analyzer that finds exporting pointers for loop variables. Pin them all!

What's this?

Sample problem code from: https://github.com/kyoh86/exportloopref/blob/main/testdata/src/simple/simple.go

package main

func main() {
	var intArray [4]*int
	var intSlice []*int
	var intRef *int
	var intStr struct{ x *int }

	println("loop expecting 10, 11, 12, 13")
	for i, p := range []int{10, 11, 12, 13} {
		printp(&p)                      // not a diagnostic
		intSlice = append(intSlice, &p) // want "exporting a pointer for the loop variable p"
		intArray[i] = &p                // want "exporting a pointer for the loop variable p"
		if i%2 == 0 {
			intRef = &p   // want "exporting a pointer for the loop variable p"
			intStr.x = &p // want "exporting a pointer for the loop variable p"
		}
		var vStr struct{ x *int }
		var vArray [4]*int
		var v *int
		if i%2 == 0 {
			v = &p         // not a diagnostic (x is local variable)
			vArray[1] = &p // not a diagnostic (x is local variable)
			vStr.x = &p
		}
		_ = v
	}

	println(`slice expecting "10, 11, 12, 13" but "13, 13, 13, 13"`)
	for _, p := range intSlice {
		printp(p)
	}
	println(`array expecting "10, 11, 12, 13" but "13, 13, 13, 13"`)
	for _, p := range intArray {
		printp(p)
	}
	println(`captured value expecting "12" but "13"`)
	printp(intRef)
}

func printp(p *int) {
	println(*p)
}

In Go, the p variable in the above loops is actually a single variable. So in many case (like the above), using it makes for us annoying bugs.

You can find them with exportloopref, and fix it.

package main

func main() {
	var intArray [4]*int
	var intSlice []*int
	var intRef *int
	var intStr struct{ x *int }

	println("loop expecting 10, 11, 12, 13")
	for i, p := range []int{10, 11, 12, 13} {
    p := p                          // FIX variable into the local variable
		printp(&p)
		intSlice = append(intSlice, &p) 
		intArray[i] = &p
		if i%2 == 0 {
			intRef = &p
			intStr.x = &p
		}
		var vStr struct{ x *int }
		var vArray [4]*int
		var v *int
		if i%2 == 0 {
			v = &p
			vArray[1] = &p
			vStr.x = &p
		}
		_ = v
	}

	println(`slice expecting "10, 11, 12, 13"`)
	for _, p := range intSlice {
		printp(p)
	}
	println(`array expecting "10, 11, 12, 13"`)
	for _, p := range intArray {
		printp(p)
	}
	println(`captured value expecting "12"`)
	printp(intRef)
}

func printp(p *int) {
	println(*p)
}

ref: https://github.com/kyoh86/exportloopref/blob/main/testdata/src/fixed/fixed.go

Sensing policy

I want to make exportloopref as accurately as possible. So some cases of lints will be false-negative.

e.g.

var s Foo
for _, p := range []int{10, 11, 12, 13} {
  s.Bar(&p) // If s stores the pointer, it will be bug.
}

If you want to report all of lints (with some false-positives), you should use looppointer.

Known false negatives

Case 1: pass the pointer to function to export.

Case 2: pass the pointer to local variable, and export it.

package main

type List []*int

func (l *List) AppendP(p *int) {
	*l = append(*l, p)
}

func main() {
	var slice []*int
	list := List{}

	println("loop expect exporting 10, 11, 12, 13")
	for _, v := range []int{10, 11, 12, 13} {
		list.AppendP(&v) // Case 1: wanted "exporting a pointer for the loop variable v", but cannot be found

		p := &v                  // p is the local variable
		slice = append(slice, p) // Case 2: wanted "exporting a pointer for the loop variable v", but cannot be found
	}

	println(`slice expecting "10, 11, 12, 13" but "13, 13, 13, 13"`)
	for _, p := range slice {
		printp(p)
	}
	println(`array expecting "10, 11, 12, 13" but "13, 13, 13, 13"`)
	for _, p := range ([]*int)(list) {
		printp(p)
	}
}

func printp(p *int) {
	println(*p)
}

Install

go:

$ go install github.com/kyoh86/exportloopref/cmd/exportloopref@latest

homebrew:

$ brew install kyoh86/tap/exportloopref

gordon:

$ gordon install kyoh86/exportloopref

Usage

exportloopref [-flag] [package]

Flags

Flag	Description
-V	print version and exit
-all	no effect (deprecated)
-c int	display offending line with this many lines of context (default -1)
-cpuprofile string	write CPU profile to this file
-debug string	debug flags, any subset of "fpstv"
-fix	apply all suggested fixes
-flags	print analyzer flags in JSON
-json	emit JSON output
-memprofile string	write memory profile to this file
-source	no effect (deprecated)
-tags string	no effect (deprecated)
-trace string	write trace log to this file
-v	no effect (deprecated)

LICENSE

This is distributed under the MIT License.