text/template: can't evaluate field a in type *main.A

[mei-rune]

What version of Go are you using (go version)?

$ go version
go version go1.11.1 windows/amd64

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

Yes

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (go env)?

go env Output

$ go env
set GOARCH=amd64
set GOBIN=
set GOCACHE=C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Local\go-build
set GOEXE=.exe
set GOFLAGS=
set GOHOSTARCH=amd64
set GOHOSTOS=windows
set GOOS=windows
set GOPATH=d:\developing\go\xxxxx;
set GOPROXY=
set GORACE=
set GOROOT=d:\tools\go_amd64
set GOTMPDIR=
set GOTOOLDIR=d:\tools\go_amd64\pkg\tool\windows_amd64
set GCCGO=gccgo
set CC=gcc
set CXX=g++
set CGO_ENABLED=1
set GOMOD=
set CGO_CFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_CPPFLAGS=
set CGO_CXXFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_FFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_LDFLAGS=-g -O2
set PKG_CONFIG=pkg-config
set GOGCCFLAGS=-m64 -mthreads -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Temp\go-build794245338=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switche
s

What did you do?

// You can edit this code!
// Click here and start typing.
package main

import (
 "fmt"
 "text/template"
 "os"
)

type A struct {
  Name string
}

func main() {
	var a *A = nil

	err := template.Must(template.New("default").Parse("{{.Name}}")).Execute(os.Stdout, a)
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Println(err)
	}
}

What did you expect to see?

template: default:1:4: executing "default" at <.Name>: nil pointer evaluating .Name

What did you see instead?

template: default:1:4: executing "default" at <.Name>: can't evaluate field Name in type *main.A

[agnivade]

/cc @mvdan

[mvdan]

Indeed seems like an edge case where the error could be clearer. Will send a CL for 1.13, since it's not a regression and doesn't seem important enough to merge this late during the freeze.

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/153341 mentions this issue: text/template: improve nil errors in evalField