Debugging "exit status 1" Error in Go's exec.Command

When encountering the enigmatic "exit status 1" error while executing external commands using Golang's exec.Command, it can be a daunting task to pinpoint the exact cause. This brief guide will provide insights into troubleshooting the error effectively.

Using Stderr for Enhanced Error Messages

By default, exec.Command captures only standard output (stdout) when running a command. To retrieve more detailed error messages, you can utilize the Stderr property of the exec.Command struct. Here's how:

cmd := exec.Command("find", "/", "-maxdepth", "1", "-exec", "wc", "-c", "{}", "\\")
var out bytes.Buffer
var stderr bytes.Buffer
cmd.Stdout = &out
cmd.Stderr = &stderr

Now, when the command is executed and an error occurs, the error message will be written to the stderr buffer instead of a generic "exit status 1."

Example

Consider the following code snippet:

cmd := exec.Command("find", "/", "-maxdepth", "1", "-exec", "wc", "-c", "{}", "\\")
var out bytes.Buffer
var stderr bytes.Buffer
cmd.Stdout = &out
cmd.Stderr = &stderr
err := cmd.Run()
if err != nil {
    fmt.Println(fmt.Sprint(err)   ": "   stderr.String())
    return
}
fmt.Println("Result: "   out.String())

Upon execution, the code will display the following detailed error message:

exit status 1: find: -exec: no terminating ";" or " "

Additional Considerations

It's worth noting that some commands may not abide by the convention of writing errors to stderr. Some commands may print errors to stdout, while others may print errors to stderr but still return a successful exit status (0). Therefore, it may be necessary to adjust the code to cater to the specific commands you're executing.