affected/package: go env GOBIN

[pebbe]

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

$ go version
go version go1.20.1 linux/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="/home/peter/.cache/go-build"
GOENV="/home/peter/.config/go/env"
GOEXE=""
GOEXPERIMENT=""
GOFLAGS=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="linux"
GOINSECURE=""
GOMODCACHE="/home/peter/go/pkg/mod"
GONOPROXY="github.com/pebbe/dbxml"
GONOSUMDB="github.com/pebbe/dbxml"
GOOS="linux"
GOPATH="/home/peter/go"
GOPRIVATE="github.com/pebbe/dbxml"
GOPROXY="https://proxy.golang.org,direct"
GOROOT="/my/opt/go"
GOSUMDB="sum.golang.org"
GOTMPDIR="/home/peter/tmp"
GOTOOLDIR="/my/opt/go/pkg/tool/linux_amd64"
GOVCS=""
GOVERSION="go1.20.1"
GCCGO="gccgo"
GOAMD64="v1"
AR="ar"
CC="gcc"
CXX="g++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
GOMOD="/home/peter/go/src/github.com/rug-compling/alpinoviewer/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 -m64 -pthread -Wl,--no-gc-sections -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/home/peter/tmp/go-build1826612007=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches"

What did you do?

$ go env GOBIN

What did you expect to see?

The name of the directory where go install installs programs.

What did you see instead?

Nothing at all

More...

$ go help environment

The go command and the tools it invokes consult environment variables
for configuration. If an environment variable is unset, the go command
uses a sensible default setting. To see the effective setting of the
variable <NAME>, run 'go env <NAME>'.

[omitted]

General-purpose environment variables:

[omitted]

        GOBIN
                The directory where 'go install' will install a command.

[truncated]

$ go env GOBIN

[no output]

$ env | grep GOBIN

[no output]

$ go env GOENV
/home/peter/.config/go/env

$ cat `go env GOENV`
GOPRIVATE=github.com/pebbe/

[fzipp]

The empty output means that the GOBIN environment variable is not set.

$ go help environment
[...] If an environment variable is unset, the go command
uses a sensible default setting.

[mvdan]

Also see #23439 (comment).

[pebbe]

The empty output means that the GOBIN environment variable is not set.

$ go help environment
[...] If an environment variable is unset, the go command
uses a sensible default setting.

Read the next sentence.

The current behaviour is not what the documentation says it should be. So this is clearly a bug, and it should be fixed.

[mvdan]

That is exactly what #23439 (comment) describes. That issue remains open as it is not fixed.