x/all: no obvious way to download source code #62645

jnjackins · 2023-09-14T17:43:09Z

What version of Go are you using (`go version`)?

$ go version
go version go1.21.1 darwin/amd64

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

Yes

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (`go env`)?

go env Output

$ go env
GO111MODULE=''
GOARCH='amd64'
GOBIN=''
GOCACHE='/Users/jnj/Library/Caches/go-build'
GOENV='/Users/jnj/Library/Application Support/go/env'
GOEXE=''
GOEXPERIMENT=''
GOFLAGS=''
GOHOSTARCH='amd64'
GOHOSTOS='darwin'
GOINSECURE=''
GOMODCACHE='/Users/jnj/pkg/mod'
GOOS='darwin'
GOPATH='/Users/jnj'
GOPRIVATE='github.com/segmentio'
GOPROXY='https://proxy.golang.org,direct'
GOROOT='/Users/jnj/src/go'
GOSUMDB='sum.golang.org'
GOTMPDIR=''
GOTOOLCHAIN='auto'
GOTOOLDIR='/Users/jnj/src/go/pkg/tool/darwin_amd64'
GOVCS=''
GOVERSION='go1.21.1'
GCCGO='gccgo'
GOAMD64='v1'
AR='ar'
CC='clang'
CXX='clang++'
CGO_ENABLED='1'
GOMOD='/Users/jnj/src/go/src/go.mod'
GOWORK=''
CGO_CFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_CPPFLAGS=''
CGO_CXXFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_FFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_LDFLAGS='-O2 -g'
PKG_CONFIG='pkg-config'
GOGCCFLAGS='-fPIC -arch x86_64 -m64 -pthread -fno-caret-diagnostics -Qunused-arguments -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/Users/jnj/tmp/go-build1463137461=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches -fno-common'

What did you do?

I tried to download the source for the golang.org/x/image module.

Following the instructions in the README:

Download/Install

The easiest way to install is to run go get -u golang.org/x/image/.... You can also manually git clone the repository to $GOPATH/src/golang.org/x/image.

$ go get -u golang.org/x/image/...
go: go.mod file not found in current directory or any parent directory.
	'go get' is no longer supported outside a module.
	To build and install a command, use 'go install' with a version,
	like 'go install example.com/cmd@latest'
	For more information, see https://golang.org/doc/go-get-install-deprecation
	or run 'go help get' or 'go help install'.

Neither the README, nor the git hosting website that golang.org/x/image redirects to provide a cloneable URL. If one tries to guess using the website URL:

$ git clone https://cs.opensource.google/go/x/image
Cloning into 'image'...
fatal: https://cs.opensource.google/go/x/image/info/refs not valid: is this a git repository?

Note that while I use x/image as an example, the majority of these modules provide non-working instructions for retrieving the source code.

This lack of a canonical way to download source code has apparently been an issue since module-aware go get was introduced, with tracking issues coming and going with no new solution provided other than "use the typical VCS clone command". Which is OK (though a worse experience), but seemingly the Go ecosystem never adapted by providing alternate instructions. This is not typically an issue on git hosts like github, where the clone URL is prominent, but I searched for a few minutes and found no mention of a repository clone URL for any of the golang.org/x modules.

What did you expect to see?

Ideally, a useable go command which downloads the source code, as we were all accustomed to in the pre-module days. Otherwise, simple (working) instructions for cloning these repositories, or at minimum a visible URL which can be used with git clone.

What did you see instead?

The errors shown above.

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

gophun · 2023-09-14T19:52:21Z

In my opinion these outdated instructions should just be removed.

How to add a module as a dependency to a project is something a Go developer learns once at the beginning of their journey and it doesn't need to be repeated in every README.

How to get the source code of a repository depends on where it's hosted. It shouldn't be in the README either, because the same repository can be hosted on various hosting platforms. It's the responsibility of the hosting platform to provide the user with a cloneable path or a download link.

jnjackins · 2023-09-14T19:55:25Z

To be clear I'm not trying to discuss dependencies or adding of them at all. I'm talking about downloading source code, and as you said the hosting platform does not seem to provide the necessary info. The READMEs attempt to provide instructions but these instructions have been broken by the tooling changes.

gophun · 2023-09-14T20:06:27Z

To be clear I'm not trying to discuss dependencies or adding of them at all.

But that was the purpose of the instructions in the READMEs. It was not to tell how to get the source code, but how to make it usable as a dependency. The fact that "go get" used to download the source code into GOPATH was a side effect. In the module world you still use "go get" to make it usable as a dependency, but you need to be in a folder with a "go.mod" file.

gophun · 2023-09-14T20:11:31Z

and as you said the hosting platform does not seem to provide the necessary info

In this case the right thing is to fix the hosting platform, not to copy some instructions into every README, which will be wrong as soon as the repository is hosted somewhere else.

bcmills · 2023-09-15T14:52:30Z

go mod download -json golang.org/x/image/...?

seankhliao · 2023-09-15T15:37:14Z

maybe we need to add the same notice as the main repo?

Our canonical Git repository is located at https://go.googlesource.com/go. There is a mirror of the repository at https://github.com/golang/go.

aslatter · 2023-09-16T03:52:07Z

As a usability case-study, if I want to do a VCS checkout of, say x/crypto, my process is:

Do a Google search for "golang x crypto" and arrive at https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto
Follow the source-code link to https://cs.opensource.google/go/x/crypto
Fail to find any link that would let me clone the repo (it's clear it's a Git repo, though)
Assume there is probably a mirror on GitHub and perform another search for "golang x crypto github"
Land on the GitHub mirror and follow the instructions for performing a "git clone": https://github.com/golang/crypto

gl-yziquel · 2023-12-01T14:23:42Z

Same issue.

This is extremely frustrating

kaber2 · 2024-10-31T00:50:42Z

Indeed. Just wanted to update my local copy of x/crypto and ran into the same issue, then remembered i had it before a few years ago.

This is ridiculous. Its apparently an open source software hosting site, yet it provides no information how to actually clone the repositories. Obvious methods don't work.

Well thanks to @aslatter for the github link.

gopherbot · 2024-10-31T20:22:16Z

Change https://go.dev/cl/624115 mentions this issue: README: don't recommend go get

gopherbot · 2024-10-31T22:34:18Z

Change https://go.dev/cl/624155 mentions this issue: README: don't recommend go get

gopherbot · 2024-10-31T22:35:35Z

Change https://go.dev/cl/624175 mentions this issue: README: don't recommend go get

gopherbot · 2024-10-31T22:38:47Z

Change https://go.dev/cl/624195 mentions this issue: README: don't recommend go get

gopherbot · 2024-10-31T22:40:50Z

Change https://go.dev/cl/624215 mentions this issue: README: don't mention GOPATH

gopherbot · 2024-10-31T22:43:15Z

Change https://go.dev/cl/623820 mentions this issue: README: don't recommend go get

gopherbot · 2024-10-31T22:44:41Z

Change https://go.dev/cl/624078 mentions this issue: README: don't recommend go get

gopherbot · 2024-10-31T22:45:20Z

Change https://go.dev/cl/624216 mentions this issue: README: don't recommend go get

gopherbot · 2024-10-31T22:48:59Z

Change https://go.dev/cl/624235 mentions this issue: README: don't recommend go get

gopherbot · 2024-10-31T23:02:54Z

Change https://go.dev/cl/624217 mentions this issue: README: explain that repository is obsolete

These days people will just import the packages and the go tool will do the right thing. We don't need to explain it. Add a pointer to the git repo, though. For golang/go#62645 Change-Id: Icbe33e05f96e1b32f6fcc99fb5fb0b2ecb213a08 Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/sync/+/623820 Commit-Queue: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Auto-Submit: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> LUCI-TryBot-Result: Go LUCI <golang-scoped@luci-project-accounts.iam.gserviceaccount.com> Reviewed-by: Alan Donovan <adonovan@google.com> Reviewed-by: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com>

These days people will just import the packages and the go tool will do the right thing. We don't need to explain it. Add a pointer to the git repo, though. For golang/go#62645 Change-Id: Ia5a16d8d66395e3feee2029ea1c3140b4d3939e7 Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/net/+/624175 Auto-Submit: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> LUCI-TryBot-Result: Go LUCI <golang-scoped@luci-project-accounts.iam.gserviceaccount.com> Reviewed-by: Damien Neil <dneil@google.com> Reviewed-by: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com>

These days people will just import the packages and the go tool will do the right thing. We don't need to explain it. Add a pointer to the git repo, though. For golang/go#62645 Change-Id: Ib6a6fb8989df8071b20d50de446d05b270c1f1ae Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/oauth2/+/624195 Commit-Queue: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> LUCI-TryBot-Result: Go LUCI <golang-scoped@luci-project-accounts.iam.gserviceaccount.com> Reviewed-by: Cody Oss <codyoss@google.com> Reviewed-by: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Auto-Submit: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com>

gopherbot · 2024-11-01T23:42:03Z

Change https://go.dev/cl/624296 mentions this issue: README: don't recommend go get

These days people will just import the packages and the go tool will do the right thing. We don't need to explain it. Add a pointer to the git repo, though. For golang/go#62645 Change-Id: I0a1721eb456645c1422580497e3dcc9906a41223 Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/text/+/624296 Auto-Submit: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Reviewed-by: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Commit-Queue: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> LUCI-TryBot-Result: Go LUCI <golang-scoped@luci-project-accounts.iam.gserviceaccount.com> Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@google.com> Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@golang.org>

Add a pointer to the git repo. For golang/go#62645 Change-Id: Ie28be88c7ed4ff3f0f758a7cf8f1c5bf64e5a1f3 Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/review/+/624215 Commit-Queue: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@golang.org> Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@google.com> LUCI-TryBot-Result: Go LUCI <golang-scoped@luci-project-accounts.iam.gserviceaccount.com> Reviewed-by: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Auto-Submit: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com>

These days people will just import the packages and the go tool will do the right thing. We don't need to explain it. Add a pointer to the git repo, though. For golang/go#62645 Change-Id: I87fbf5d50e75120052f56ed6d4ac9977056cde9f Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/time/+/624235 LUCI-TryBot-Result: Go LUCI <golang-scoped@luci-project-accounts.iam.gserviceaccount.com> Reviewed-by: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Commit-Queue: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@google.com> Auto-Submit: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@golang.org>

These days people will just import the packages and the go tool will do the right thing. We don't need to explain it. Add a pointer to the git repo, though. For golang/go#62645 Change-Id: I641439c4fa02391fb77b05d639d6815094724a3a Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/term/+/624216 Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@golang.org> Auto-Submit: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Commit-Queue: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Reviewed-by: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@google.com> LUCI-TryBot-Result: Go LUCI <golang-scoped@luci-project-accounts.iam.gserviceaccount.com>

These days people will just import the packages and the go tool will do the right thing. We don't need to explain it. Add a pointer to the git repo, though. For golang/go#62645 Change-Id: I94cd9c588a68d92c61d00be05740248509a2ae6e Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/sys/+/624078 Auto-Submit: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@golang.org> Reviewed-by: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> LUCI-TryBot-Result: Go LUCI <golang-scoped@luci-project-accounts.iam.gserviceaccount.com> Commit-Queue: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@google.com>

Remove reference cloning repo into GOPATH. For golang/go#62645 Change-Id: Id1b483f63e7a1c82529df5d991179c07acd51245 Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/vgo/+/624217 Reviewed-by: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Auto-Submit: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Commit-Queue: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> TryBot-Bypass: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@golang.org> Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@google.com> Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <dmitshur@golang.org> Commit-Queue: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@golang.org>

These days people will just import the packages and the go tool will do the right thing. We don't need to explain it. Add a pointer to the git repo, though. For golang/go#62645 Change-Id: I8b1e4a877bd83fe6891688a44d27a6c7902c8979 Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/crypto/+/624155 LUCI-TryBot-Result: Go LUCI <golang-scoped@luci-project-accounts.iam.gserviceaccount.com> Commit-Queue: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Reviewed-by: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Auto-Submit: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> Reviewed-by: Roland Shoemaker <roland@golang.org>

gopherbot added this to the Unreleased milestone Sep 14, 2023

heschi added the NeedsInvestigation Someone must examine and confirm this is a valid issue and not a duplicate of an existing one. label Sep 15, 2023

gopherbot closed this as completed in golang/image@ec562a8 Nov 1, 2024

dmitshur added the Documentation label Nov 2, 2024

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x/all: no obvious way to download source code #62645

x/all: no obvious way to download source code #62645

jnjackins commented Sep 14, 2023

gophun commented Sep 14, 2023

jnjackins commented Sep 14, 2023 •

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gophun commented Sep 14, 2023 •

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gophun commented Sep 14, 2023

bcmills commented Sep 15, 2023

seankhliao commented Sep 15, 2023

aslatter commented Sep 16, 2023 •

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gl-yziquel commented Dec 1, 2023 •

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kaber2 commented Oct 31, 2024

gopherbot commented Oct 31, 2024

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gopherbot commented Nov 1, 2024

x/all: no obvious way to download source code #62645

x/all: no obvious way to download source code #62645

Comments

jnjackins commented Sep 14, 2023

What version of Go are you using (go version)?

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (go env)?

What did you do?

What did you expect to see?

What did you see instead?

gophun commented Sep 14, 2023

jnjackins commented Sep 14, 2023 • edited Loading

gophun commented Sep 14, 2023 • edited Loading

gophun commented Sep 14, 2023

bcmills commented Sep 15, 2023

seankhliao commented Sep 15, 2023

aslatter commented Sep 16, 2023 • edited Loading

gl-yziquel commented Dec 1, 2023 • edited Loading

kaber2 commented Oct 31, 2024

gopherbot commented Oct 31, 2024

gopherbot commented Oct 31, 2024

gopherbot commented Oct 31, 2024

gopherbot commented Oct 31, 2024

gopherbot commented Oct 31, 2024

gopherbot commented Oct 31, 2024

gopherbot commented Oct 31, 2024

gopherbot commented Oct 31, 2024

gopherbot commented Oct 31, 2024

gopherbot commented Oct 31, 2024

gopherbot commented Nov 1, 2024

What version of Go are you using (`go version`)?

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (`go env`)?

jnjackins commented Sep 14, 2023 •

edited

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gophun commented Sep 14, 2023 •

edited

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aslatter commented Sep 16, 2023 •

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gl-yziquel commented Dec 1, 2023 •

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