I find that a mustBeNil function is useful:

    func mustBeNil(err error) {
        if err != nil {
            panic(err)
            // or log.Fatal(err)
        }
    }

or

    func mustBeNil(err error, msg string) {
        if err != nil {
            log.Fatalf("%s: %s", err, msg)
        }
    }

;Edit: brackets