Use the dart:io Platform.resolvedExecutable API to locate the Dart SDK.

pkg/analyzer/lib/src/lint/analysis.dart

Index: pkg/analyzer/lib/src/lint/analysis.dart
diff --git a/pkg/analyzer/lib/src/lint/analysis.dart b/pkg/analyzer/lib/src/lint/analysis.dart
index 57d85e258fb0b302f7e95029857da220edc9940f..84a8a3c7f7b19629c4a9951abace3d29444efa0b 100644
--- a/pkg/analyzer/lib/src/lint/analysis.dart
+++ b/pkg/analyzer/lib/src/lint/analysis.dart
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import 'package:analyzer/src/lint/linter.dart';
 import 'package:analyzer/src/lint/project.dart';
 import 'package:analyzer/src/lint/registry.dart';
 import 'package:analyzer/src/services/lint.dart';
-import 'package:cli_util/cli_util.dart' as cli_util;
+import 'package:analyzer/src/util/sdk.dart';
 import 'package:package_config/packages.dart' show Packages;
 import 'package:package_config/packages_file.dart' as pkgfile show parse;
 import 'package:package_config/src/packages_impl.dart' show MapPackages;
@@ -134,12 +134,8 @@ class LintDriver {
   }
 
   String get sdkDir {
-    if (options.dartSdkPath != null) {
-      return options.dartSdkPath;
-    }
-    // In case no SDK has been specified, fall back to inferring it
-    // TODO: pass args to cli_util
-    return cli_util.getSdkDir().path;
+    // In case no SDK has been specified, fall back to inferring it.
+    return options.dartSdkPath ?? getSdkPath();
   }
 
   List<AnalysisErrorInfo> analyze(Iterable<io.File> files) {