Caching issue with source files excluded by build tags

[mdelah]

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?

go install

Description of the problem

It seems the cache is not invalidated when a source file that is excluded from the build on the current platform is modified. This can lead to "ghost" issues being reported from linters on said files after they are fixed, or issues being missed.

See minimal example below.

Could be related to the use of CompiledGoFiles (as opposed to GoFiles) when constructing the hash here?

Version of golangci-lint

$ golangci-lint --version
golangci-lint has version 2.6.1 built with go1.25.0 from (e3b3bac5dd24906c205db9224fde52efd4d238cf, modified: false, mod sum: "") on 2025-11-04T10:58:22Z

Configuration

linters:
  enable:
    - govet

Go environment

go version go1.25.0 linux/amd64

Verbose output of running

INFO golangci-lint has version 2.6.1 built with go1.25.0 from (e3b3bac5dd24906c205db9224fde52efd4d238cf, modified: false, mod sum: "") on 2025-11-04T10:58:22Z 
INFO [config_reader] Config search paths: [./ /home/miles/repos/example /home/miles/repos /home/miles /home /] 
INFO [config_reader] Used config file .golangci.yml 
INFO [config_reader] Module name "example.com/mod" 
INFO maxprocs: Leaving GOMAXPROCS=28: CPU quota undefined 
INFO [goenv] Read go env for 6.824869ms: map[string]string{"GOCACHE":"/home/miles/.cache/go-build", "GOROOT":"/home/miles/go/pkg/mod/golang.org/toolchain@v0.0.1-go1.25.0.linux-amd64"} 
INFO [lintersdb] Active 5 linters: [errcheck govet ineffassign staticcheck unused] 
INFO [loader] Go packages loading at mode 8767 (types_sizes|compiled_files|imports|deps|exports_file|files|name) took 42.059555ms 
INFO [runner/filename_unadjuster] Pre-built 0 adjustments in 72.382µs 
INFO [linters_context/goanalysis] analyzers took 0s with no stages 
INFO [runner] processing took 1.716µs with stages: max_same_issues: 426ns, exclusion_paths: 253ns, path_absoluter: 119ns, exclusion_rules: 115ns, source_code: 95ns, diff: 91ns, path_shortener: 87ns, path_prettifier: 80ns, max_from_linter: 62ns, nolint_filter: 58ns, severity-rules: 46ns, filename_unadjuster: 34ns, invalid_issue: 33ns, generated_file_filter: 32ns, path_relativity: 31ns, sort_results: 31ns, fixer: 31ns, max_per_file_from_linter: 31ns, uniq_by_line: 31ns, cgo: 30ns 
INFO [runner] linters took 281.033µs with stages: goanalysis_metalinter: 263.108µs 
0 issues.
INFO File cache stats: 0 entries of total size 0B 
INFO Memory: 2 samples, avg is 37.6MB, max is 39.6MB 
INFO Execution took 49.634323ms                   

A minimal reproducible example or link to a public repository

Assuming we're on Linux, create the following:

go.mod

go 1.25

module example.com/mod

linux.go

//go:build linux

package main

func main() { println("running on linux") }

windows.go

//go:build windows
// +build windows

package main

func main() { println("running on windows") }

.golangci.yml

version: "2"
linters:
  enable:
  - govet

Running golangci-lint reports the old-style +build line in windows.go, via govet:

$ golangci-lint run
windows.go:2:1: buildtag: +build line is no longer needed (govet)
// +build windows
^
1 issues:
* govet: 1

Delete said line and run it again. The error is still being reported, only now line 2 is now blank:

$ sed -i 2D windows.go
$ golangci-lint run
windows.go:2:1: buildtag: +build line is no longer needed (govet)

^
1 issues:
* govet: 1

If we clear the cache it goes away:

$ golangci-lint cache clean
$ golangci-lint run
0 issues.

Validation

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

Supporter

• I am a sponsor/backer through GitHub or OpenCollective

[ldez]

I found the bug, the PR is #6179