x/tools/gopls: improve method rename functionality in face of errors

[danvolchek]

gopls version

Build info

golang.org/x/tools/gopls v0.18.0
golang.org/x/tools/[email protected] h1:oBmnrmi0Uk7Ea+ZPK16BdcjnpEJX8ciBCSp9S90GULo=
github.com/BurntSushi/[email protected] h1:pxW6RcqyfI9/kWtOwnv/G+AzdKuy2ZrqINhenH4HyNs=
github.com/google/[email protected] h1:ofyhxvXcZhMsU5ulbFiLKl/XBFqE1GSq7atu8tAmTRI=
golang.org/x/exp/[email protected] h1:1xaZTydL5Gsg78QharTwKfA9FY9CZ1VQj6D/AZEvHR0=
golang.org/x/[email protected] h1:Zb7khfcRGKk+kqfxFaP5tZqCnDZMjC5VtUBs87Hr6QM=
golang.org/x/[email protected] h1:GGz8+XQP4FvTTrjZPzNKTMFtSXH80RAzG+5ghFPgK9w=
golang.org/x/[email protected] h1:L2k9GUV2TpQKVRGMjN94qfUMgUwOFimSQ6gipyJIjKw=
golang.org/x/[email protected] h1:bofq7m3/HAFvbF51jz3Q9wLg3jkvSPuiZu/pD1XwgtM=
golang.org/x/[email protected] h1:4+it9JYqVd2wIAapscAb5mUAI1yHY0u4B4idYPigWeE=
golang.org/x/[email protected] h1:NPGnvPOTgnjBc9HTaUx+nj+EaUYxl5SJOWqaDYGaFYw=
honnef.co/go/[email protected] h1:4bH5o3b5ZULQ4UrBmP+63W9r7qIkqJClEA9ko5YKx+I=
mvdan.cc/[email protected] h1:bg91ttqXmi9y2xawvkuMXyvAA/1ZGJqYAEGjXuP0JXU=
mvdan.cc/xurls/[email protected] h1:lyBNOm8Wo71UknhUs4QTFUNNMyxy2JEIaKKo0RWOh+8=
go: go1.24.0

go env

AR='ar'
CC='gcc'
CGO_CFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_CPPFLAGS=''
CGO_CXXFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_ENABLED='1'
CGO_FFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_LDFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CXX='g++'
GCCGO='gccgo'
GO111MODULE=''
GOAMD64='v1'
GOARCH='amd64'
GOAUTH='netrc'
GOBIN=''
GOCACHE='/home/dan/.cache/go-build'
GOCACHEPROG=''
GODEBUG=''
GOENV='/home/dan/.config/go/env'
GOEXE=''
GOEXPERIMENT=''
GOFIPS140='off'
GOFLAGS=''
GOGCCFLAGS='-fPIC -m64 -pthread -Wl,--no-gc-sections -fmessage-length=0 -ffile-prefix-map=/tmp/go-build274943017=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches'
GOHOSTARCH='amd64'
GOHOSTOS='linux'
GOINSECURE=''
GOMOD='/home/dan/Desktop/Stuff/development/go-rw2/go.mod'
GOMODCACHE='/home/dan/go/pkg/mod'
GONOPROXY=''
GONOSUMDB=''
GOOS='linux'
GOPATH='/home/dan/go'
GOPRIVATE=''
GOPROXY='https://proxy.golang.org,direct'
GOROOT='/usr/lib/go'
GOSUMDB='sum.golang.org'
GOTELEMETRY='local'
GOTELEMETRYDIR='/home/dan/.config/go/telemetry'
GOTMPDIR=''
GOTOOLCHAIN='auto'
GOTOOLDIR='/usr/lib/go/pkg/tool/linux_amd64'
GOVCS=''
GOVERSION='go1.24.0'
GOWORK=''
PKG_CONFIG='pkg-config'

What did you do?

Using vscode, right clicked a method on a type, clicked rename symbol, typed in the new symbol name. In this case, a file in the same package had errors, but not the file containing the renaming

Minimal repro of the file layout: https://go.dev/play/p/FlfMX-TSaGt

What did you see happen?

renaming "doFoo" to "reallyDoFoo" not possible because "foobar.go" in "play.ground/foo" has errors

What did you expect to see?

I expected the renaming to succeed. Renaming doFoo does not affect foobar.go at all - foobar.go does not reference doFoo anywhere.

I'm mostly used to IntelliJ IDEA and my license expired so I can't test, I'm pretty sure it succeeded the renaming in this case.

Or rather, I've never had a renaming fail that I can remember when using IntelliJ, but when using vscode/gopls I run into this error multiple times per day because I'm starting a new project and a lot of files are changing at once - it's frustrating!

Editor and settings

Vscode: code -v:

1.97.2
e54c774e0add60467559eb0d1e229c6452cf8447
x64

settings.json:

{
    "gopls": {
        "ui.diagnostic.staticcheck": true
    },
    "[go]": {
        "editor.formatOnSave": true
    },
    "go.toolsManagement.autoUpdate": true
}

Go extension version 0.44.0.

Logs

(verbose logging enabled)

[Trace - 16:53:26.525 PM] Sending request 'textDocument/prepareRename - (45)'.
Params: {"textDocument":{"uri":"file:///path/to/code/foo/foo.go"},"position":{"line":5,"character":16}}


[Trace - 16:53:26.526 PM] Received response 'textDocument/prepareRename - (45)' in 0ms.
Result: {"range":{"start":{"line":5,"character":14},"end":{"line":5,"character":19}},"placeholder":"doFoo"}


[Trace - 16:53:29.131 PM] Sending request 'textDocument/rename - (46)'.
Params: {"textDocument":{"uri":"file:///path/to/code/foo/foo.go"},"position":{"line":5,"character":16},"newName":"reallyDoFoo"}


[Error - Received] 16:53:29.131 PM #46 renaming "doFoo" to "reallyDoFoo" not possible because "foobar.go" in "play.ground/foo" has errors


[Error - 4:53:29 PM] Request textDocument/rename failed.
  Message: renaming "doFoo" to "reallyDoFoo" not possible because "foobar.go" in "play.ground/foo" has errors
  Code: 0 

[gabyhelp]

Related Issues

• x/tools/gopls: Show specific file name when renaming failed. #69563 (closed)
• x/tools/gopls: rename things declared in other package fails #36743 (closed)
• x/tools/gopls: rename panics if a test file exists #33664 (closed)
• x/tools/gopls: renaming a type is not allowed when it has the same name as a parameter #66150 (closed)
• x/tools/gopls: crash during renaming #53277 (closed)
• x/tools/gopls: "edit does not belong to syntax of package %q" bug in golang.Rename #70049
• x/tools/gopls: rename crashes on single segment import path #33768 (closed)
• x/tools/gopls/internal/regtest/misc: TestRenameFileFromEditor failures #55324 (closed)
• x/tools/gopls/internal/regtest/misc: rename failures #56039 (closed)
• x/tools/gopls: rename incorrectly renames multiple function definitions #62135

_{(Emoji vote if this was helpful or unhelpful; more detailed feedback welcome in this discussion.)}

[findleyr]

This error message is specific to renaming methods, because the 'satisfy' constraint checker is strict about type errors, since they may affect the set of other methods that need to be renamed in order to preserve assignability.

However, elsewhere we've just removed the error and let the renaming proceed, and it has generally been fine. In this case, a best-effort renaming would probably succeed most of the time.

[adonovan]

Also: if #70638 makes it into go1.25, the satisfy package will become a trivial wrapper around types.Info, making it much more robust in the face of type errors.