Go Error Handling Patterns

HARD violations (must fix)

Ignored error returns

• Pattern: _ = where the discarded value is an error, or multi-return result, _ := where the blank identifier replaces an error.
• Examples: _ = os.Remove(path) (single return), conn, _ := net.Dial("tcp", addr) (multi-return, error discarded).
• Why HARD: Silently discards failures. The caller has no way to know the operation failed.

Empty error checks

• Pattern: if err != nil { } — the error is checked but the body does nothing.
• Example: if err != nil { /* no-op */ }.
• Why HARD: Acknowledges the error exists then deliberately ignores it. Worse than not checking because it looks intentional.

WARN (advisory)

Errors only logged

• Pattern: log.Printf("...:", err) (or equivalent) followed by no return or propagation.
• Why WARN: Logging is better than ignoring, but the caller still has no signal. May be intentional in fire-and-forget paths.