golines will probably be archived in the coming months

[ldez]

golines will probably be archived in the coming months (it's written in the readme).

As of late 2024, segmentio/golines has functionally been in maintenance mode and several dependencies appear to be similarly unmaintained.
At some point in Q4 2025, this repository will be archived unless active maintainership can be found within Twilio Segment.
The code will remain available, and the terms of the license will not be changed.

Based on the text inside the readme, I think they don't want to transfer it.

So I started working on a fork that's more complete than the one we currently use.
I used it to refactor the code, set up more complete tests, and fix some bugs.

https://github.com/golangci/golines/tree/wip/main

I'm still working on the branch (and I push force it), but the overall state is stable and without breaking changes.

I'll open an issue on the original repo for discussion with Segment, but I'll wait a bit in Q4.

[ldez]

I'm still working on it, but I think I've made good progress.

Still, nothing is breaking.

My primary goal is to enhance the project's maintainability, as this type of project can be challenging to maintain.

Project Structure

I reorganized the project into packages.
First, because we need it for golangci-lint.
Second, because it will be easier to maintain.

I replaced logrus with slog (the logger is only used for debugging).

I still haven't decided if I will convert the shortener package to a module (to avoid some dependencies when using it as a lib)

Tests

I added a new test system that allows testing all the Shortener options.
And so I added more tests.

I also added more tests on each structure, function, etc.

CLI Performance

I improved the performance of the CLI significantly by using the same design as go fmt, and some optimizations.

My fork is about nine to fourteen times faster than the current golines.

Note: I don't have a recent laptop (~4 years old).

On the Kubernetes codebase:

		Time
current	goimports as CLI	4m45s
fork	goimports as CLI	23s
fork	"goimports" as lib	20s

		Time
current	"gofmt" as lib	1m40s
fork	gofmt as CLI	13s
fork	"gofmt" as lib	11s

It is not possible to use gofmt as CLI with the current official version.

Skip cases

I added more skip cases (testdata, dot directories, etc), basically the same thing as golangci-lint fmt.

Bugs

I fixed some bugs:

• wrong directive pattern
• struct tag literals
• etc.

Notes

The default base formatter (goimports) didn't provide a good experience by default.
It was four times slower than gofmt.

[ldez]

I analyzed all the open issues and PRs of golines.

Issues

Issue	Title	Type	State	Note
segmentio/golines#135	broken image in readme	bug	already fixed	documentation
segmentio/golines#119	README badges are busted	bug	already fixed	documentation
segmentio/golines#110	line break between /* … */ comments and package statement removed	bug	already fixed	inside dave/dst
segmentio/golines#65	Formatting body of case in switch statement does not work	bug/enhancement	already fixed	function paramaters format
segmentio/golines#161	bug: do not format escaped quotes as in default:"[\"a\"]"	bug	fixed (fork)	struct tags excaped chars
segmentio/golines#160	Golines does not write a file on Macos 15.3.1 go version 1.24.0	bug	fixed (fork)	command line (-w -l) + diff
segmentio/golines#150	Running golines -w * errors when it encounters go.mod	bug	fixed (fork)	missing filter on .go files
segmentio/golines#142	bug: raw literal with backslashes becomes "unescaped"	bug	fixed (fork)	struct tags excaped chars
segmentio/golines#134	golines may output invalid code when \n is present in a struct tag.	bug	fixed (fork)	struct tags excaped chars
segmentio/golines#109	Remove tags with the same key	bug	fixed (fork)	struct tags duplicated keys
segmentio/golines#108	Tag alignment/width doesn't respect comments	bug	fixed (fork)	struct tags blocks
segmentio/golines#92	Backslashes being removed from struct tag	bug	fixed (fork)	struct tags excaped chars
segmentio/golines#37	Assumption about struct tag keys uniqueness could break code	bug	fixed (fork)	struct tags duplicated keys
segmentio/golines#21	Flag option –write-output (-w) does nothing	bug	fixed (fork)	command line (-w -l)
segmentio/golines#139	It doesn't work for "if with a statement"	bug/enhancement	fixed (fork)	ifStmt with Init
segmentio/golines#67	Any plans on adding a --lint flag	enhancement	fixed (fork)	golines as lib
segmentio/golines#34	Plans to provide this utility as a library to be used within other projects	enhancement	fixed (fork)	golines as lib
segmentio/golines#155	golines is very slow when using goimports as a base formatter (in a zsh shell)	performance	fixed (fork)
segmentio/golines#157	Is there any way to exclude a specific file or specific parts of a file?	question/bug	fixed (fork)	struct tags excaped chars
segmentio/golines#128	golines does not shorten index expressions in declarations	bug/enhancement	PR	function paramaters format
segmentio/golines#153	bug: It constantly breaks formatting in these two exact cases in gorm ... comment	?		only a screenshot
segmentio/golines#99	Panic if file is missing package declaration	bug (upstream)		inside dave/dst
segmentio/golines#66	Do not shorten output comments that are in Godoc examples	bug/enhancement		format xxxExample output
segmentio/golines#168	If lines longer than 120 and contain plus then put on next lines when 'golines . -w' is issued	enhancement		string concatenation format
segmentio/golines#159	Long list of switch/case options: Split to block (not each on new line).	enhancement		switch case format
segmentio/golines#145	Should function signature formatting be applied to this?	enhancement		function paramaters format
segmentio/golines#131	Struct literals are not broken down if there are already line breaks	enhancement		struct fields format
segmentio/golines#126	Long lines in interfaces inside structs are not broken down	enhancement		function paramaters format
segmentio/golines#104	Wrap math expressions	enhancement		string concatenation format
segmentio/golines#94	Not shortening long type definitions	enhancement		function paramaters format
segmentio/golines#90	Do not move all parameters to individual lines	enhancement		function paramaters format
segmentio/golines#74	Wrap long receivers and return types	enhancement		function paramaters format
segmentio/golines#49	packing function call lines	enhancement		function paramaters format
segmentio/golines#106	Extremely slow golines formatting for specific function	not reproducible
segmentio/golines#120	Sign macOS binaries	proposal		?
segmentio/golines#164	Breaking short chained methods	proposal		methods chaining format
segmentio/golines#151	Add option to ignore lines before indent change	proposal
segmentio/golines#138	Use .editorconfig file to set line length	proposal
segmentio/golines#91	Improve ignore capabilities	proposal
segmentio/golines#45	block section from formatting	proposal
segmentio/golines#39	Add support for formatting specific line number(s)	proposal
segmentio/golines#17	Split long strings	proposal
segmentio/golines#162	gopls setup	question
segmentio/golines#141	Is it possible to support passing part of the code through stdin?	question
segmentio/golines#140	What is the generate binary for	question
segmentio/golines#124	Support formatting from stdin so golines can be used directly with VS Code's Go extension	question		stdin
segmentio/golines#123	golines format code that does not need to be shortened	question
segmentio/golines#115	Unnecessary addition of import logger when symbol exists within a package.	question
segmentio/golines#100	The gofumpt formatter doesn't seem to work as a base formatter	question
segmentio/golines#93	golines breaks lines with //nolint	question
segmentio/golines#83	go install: cannot install cross-compiled binaries when GOBIN is set	question
segmentio/golines#25	keep blank line.	question
segmentio/golines#125	shorten comments not workring correctly	question/proposal
segmentio/golines#98	Tool does not un-format lines that fit within one line	question/proposal
segmentio/golines#70	Unwrap lines when wrapping isn't needed	question/proposal
segmentio/golines#48	Tag alignment issue	question/proposal		one struct tag format

I fixed all the bugs inside the fork.

Pull Requests

PR	Title	State	Note
segmentio/golines#105	Add -jobs option	fixed (fork)	This PR provides ~30 %, but my fork provides more than 900% of improvement
segmentio/golines#163	simplify tests; enable testifylint, usetesting linters	fixed (fork)
segmentio/golines#143	fix: #142 raw literal with backslashes becomes "unescaped"	fixed (fork)
segmentio/golines#137	Fix isGenerated to work with license message at top of files	fixed (fork)
segmentio/golines#132	Format structs that have line breaks	fixed (fork)
segmentio/golines#88	refactor: Create shorten package	fixed (fork)
segmentio/golines#95	Added documentation on enabling through Goland		Documentation
segmentio/golines#89	Expand filter for --ignore-generated		IMHO, not the right approach
segmentio/golines#174	feat: add --compact-function-args flag to control function argument formatting		Interesting but no tests
segmentio/golines#130	Format long lines in struct definitions		Interesting, but required to check regressions
segmentio/golines#129	Add handling for index expressions		Interesting, but required to check regressions
segmentio/golines#154	Update .pre-commit-hooks.yaml		No description, no explanation
segmentio/golines#152	feat: Add option to ignore lines before indentation change		No tests, no option
segmentio/golines#166	Support editorconfig		Not sure if this change is a good idea
segmentio/golines#122	Pre-commit hook: pin goimports and allow customized arguments		One of the changes is obsolete with the fork, the other change doesn't seem useful
segmentio/golines#59	Reflow long comment lines which don't end with a period		Seem offtopic

[ldez]

I'm thinking about how to proceed.

I think I will:

1. create a branch main based on the current master branch of the Segment repo.
2. switch the default branch of the fork to main (instead of fork as currently)
3. open a PR with all my changes and merge it. Not to be reviewed, but for history.
4. open an issue in the Segment repo.
5. wait for feedback from Segment before creating a tag

[ldez]

segmentio/golines#175

[mckern]

👋🏻 letting you know that we officially archived Golines today, and that all issues and discussions are read-only there now. The README has been updated to point interested parties towards your fork if they choose to migrate.

[ldez]

Thank you!

The first tag on the fork will be a Christmas gift 🎅 🎁 🎄