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These are all the docs that aren't tied to active work in the main repo (basically all docs, except the spec, memory model, assembler manual, and in-progress release notes). Copied from Go ff0e93ea3, deleted there in CL 291711. Change-Id: Ia269abfc0fa207c036bb7b3c13e4167e80005d2c Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/website/+/291693 Trust: Russ Cox <[email protected]> Run-TryBot: Russ Cox <[email protected]> TryBot-Result: Go Bot <[email protected]> Reviewed-by: Dmitri Shuralyov <[email protected]>
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<!--{ | ||
"title": "About the go command" | ||
}--> | ||
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<p>The Go distribution includes a command, named | ||
"<code><a href="/cmd/go/">go</a></code>", that | ||
automates the downloading, building, installation, and testing of Go packages | ||
and commands. This document talks about why we wrote a new command, what it | ||
is, what it's not, and how to use it.</p> | ||
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<h2>Motivation</h2> | ||
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<p>You might have seen early Go talks in which Rob Pike jokes that the idea | ||
for Go arose while waiting for a large Google server to compile. That | ||
really was the motivation for Go: to build a language that worked well | ||
for building the large software that Google writes and runs. It was | ||
clear from the start that such a language must provide a way to | ||
express dependencies between code libraries clearly, hence the package | ||
grouping and the explicit import blocks. It was also clear from the | ||
start that you might want arbitrary syntax for describing the code | ||
being imported; this is why import paths are string literals.</p> | ||
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<p>An explicit goal for Go from the beginning was to be able to build Go | ||
code using only the information found in the source itself, not | ||
needing to write a makefile or one of the many modern replacements for | ||
makefiles. If Go needed a configuration file to explain how to build | ||
your program, then Go would have failed.</p> | ||
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<p>At first, there was no Go compiler, and the initial development | ||
focused on building one and then building libraries for it. For | ||
expedience, we postponed the automation of building Go code by using | ||
make and writing makefiles. When compiling a single package involved | ||
multiple invocations of the Go compiler, we even used a program to | ||
write the makefiles for us. You can find it if you dig through the | ||
repository history.</p> | ||
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<p>The purpose of the new go command is our return to this ideal, that Go | ||
programs should compile without configuration or additional effort on | ||
the part of the developer beyond writing the necessary import | ||
statements.</p> | ||
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<h2>Configuration versus convention</h2> | ||
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<p>The way to achieve the simplicity of a configuration-free system is to | ||
establish conventions. The system works only to the extent that those conventions | ||
are followed. When we first launched Go, many people published packages that | ||
had to be installed in certain places, under certain names, using certain build | ||
tools, in order to be used. That's understandable: that's the way it works in | ||
most other languages. Over the last few years we consistently reminded people | ||
about the <code>goinstall</code> command | ||
(now replaced by <a href="/cmd/go/#hdr-Download_and_install_packages_and_dependencies"><code>go get</code></a>) | ||
and its conventions: first, that the import path is derived in a known way from | ||
the URL of the source code; second, that the place to store the sources in | ||
the local file system is derived in a known way from the import path; third, | ||
that each directory in a source tree corresponds to a single package; and | ||
fourth, that the package is built using only information in the source code. | ||
Today, the vast majority of packages follow these conventions. | ||
The Go ecosystem is simpler and more powerful as a result.</p> | ||
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<p>We received many requests to allow a makefile in a package directory to | ||
provide just a little extra configuration beyond what's in the source code. | ||
But that would have introduced new rules. Because we did not accede to such | ||
requests, we were able to write the go command and eliminate our use of make | ||
or any other build system.</p> | ||
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<p>It is important to understand that the go command is not a general | ||
build tool. It cannot be configured and it does not attempt to build | ||
anything but Go packages. These are important simplifying | ||
assumptions: they simplify not only the implementation but also, more | ||
important, the use of the tool itself.</p> | ||
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<h2>Go's conventions</h2> | ||
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<p>The <code>go</code> command requires that code adheres to a few key, | ||
well-established conventions.</p> | ||
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<p>First, the import path is derived in a known way from the URL of the | ||
source code. For Bitbucket, GitHub, Google Code, and Launchpad, the | ||
root directory of the repository is identified by the repository's | ||
main URL, without the <code>http://</code> prefix. Subdirectories are named by | ||
adding to that path. | ||
For example, the Go example programs are obtained by running</p> | ||
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<pre> | ||
git clone https://github.com/golang/example | ||
</pre> | ||
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<p>and thus the import path for the root directory of that repository is | ||
"<code>github.com/golang/example</code>". | ||
The <a href="https://godoc.org/github.com/golang/example/stringutil">stringutil</a> | ||
package is stored in a subdirectory, so its import path is | ||
"<code>github.com/golang/example/stringutil</code>".</p> | ||
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<p>These paths are on the long side, but in exchange we get an | ||
automatically managed name space for import paths and the ability for | ||
a tool like the go command to look at an unfamiliar import path and | ||
deduce where to obtain the source code.</p> | ||
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<p>Second, the place to store sources in the local file system is derived | ||
in a known way from the import path, specifically | ||
<code>$GOPATH/src/<import-path></code>. | ||
If unset, <code>$GOPATH</code> defaults to a subdirectory | ||
named <code>go</code> in the user's home directory. | ||
If <code>$GOPATH</code> is set to a list of paths, the go command tries | ||
<code><dir>/src/<import-path></code> for each of the directories in | ||
that list. | ||
</p> | ||
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<p>Each of those trees contains, by convention, a top-level directory named | ||
"<code>bin</code>", for holding compiled executables, and a top-level directory | ||
named "<code>pkg</code>", for holding compiled packages that can be imported, | ||
and the "<code>src</code>" directory, for holding package source files. | ||
Imposing this structure lets us keep each of these directory trees | ||
self-contained: the compiled form and the sources are always near each | ||
other.</p> | ||
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<p>These naming conventions also let us work in the reverse direction, | ||
from a directory name to its import path. This mapping is important | ||
for many of the go command's subcommands, as we'll see below.</p> | ||
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<p>Third, each directory in a source tree corresponds to a single | ||
package. By restricting a directory to a single package, we don't have | ||
to create hybrid import paths that specify first the directory and | ||
then the package within that directory. Also, most file management | ||
tools and UIs work on directories as fundamental units. Tying the | ||
fundamental Go unit—the package—to file system structure means | ||
that file system tools become Go package tools. Copying, moving, or | ||
deleting a package corresponds to copying, moving, or deleting a | ||
directory.</p> | ||
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<p>Fourth, each package is built using only the information present in | ||
the source files. This makes it much more likely that the tool will | ||
be able to adapt to changing build environments and conditions. For | ||
example, if we allowed extra configuration such as compiler flags or | ||
command line recipes, then that configuration would need to be updated | ||
each time the build tools changed; it would also be inherently tied | ||
to the use of a specific toolchain.</p> | ||
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<h2>Getting started with the go command</h2> | ||
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<p>Finally, a quick tour of how to use the go command. | ||
As mentioned above, the default <code>$GOPATH</code> on Unix is <code>$HOME/go</code>. | ||
We'll store our programs there. | ||
To use a different location, you can set <code>$GOPATH</code>; | ||
see <a href="/doc/code.html">How to Write Go Code</a> for details. | ||
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<p>We first add some source code. Suppose we want to use | ||
the indexing library from the codesearch project along with a left-leaning | ||
red-black tree. We can install both with the "<code>go get</code>" | ||
subcommand:</p> | ||
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<pre> | ||
$ go get github.com/google/codesearch/index | ||
$ go get github.com/petar/GoLLRB/llrb | ||
$ | ||
</pre> | ||
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<p>Both of these projects are now downloaded and installed into <code>$HOME/go</code>, | ||
which contains the two directories | ||
<code>src/github.com/google/codesearch/index/</code> and | ||
<code>src/github.com/petar/GoLLRB/llrb/</code>, along with the compiled | ||
packages (in <code>pkg/</code>) for those libraries and their dependencies.</p> | ||
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<p>Because we used version control systems (Mercurial and Git) to check | ||
out the sources, the source tree also contains the other files in the | ||
corresponding repositories, such as related packages. The "<code>go list</code>" | ||
subcommand lists the import paths corresponding to its arguments, and | ||
the pattern "<code>./...</code>" means start in the current directory | ||
("<code>./</code>") and find all packages below that directory | ||
("<code>...</code>"):</p> | ||
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<pre> | ||
$ cd $HOME/go/src | ||
$ go list ./... | ||
github.com/google/codesearch/cmd/cgrep | ||
github.com/google/codesearch/cmd/cindex | ||
github.com/google/codesearch/cmd/csearch | ||
github.com/google/codesearch/index | ||
github.com/google/codesearch/regexp | ||
github.com/google/codesearch/sparse | ||
github.com/petar/GoLLRB/example | ||
github.com/petar/GoLLRB/llrb | ||
$ | ||
</pre> | ||
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<p>We can also test those packages:</p> | ||
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<pre> | ||
$ go test ./... | ||
? github.com/google/codesearch/cmd/cgrep [no test files] | ||
? github.com/google/codesearch/cmd/cindex [no test files] | ||
? github.com/google/codesearch/cmd/csearch [no test files] | ||
ok github.com/google/codesearch/index 0.203s | ||
ok github.com/google/codesearch/regexp 0.017s | ||
? github.com/google/codesearch/sparse [no test files] | ||
? github.com/petar/GoLLRB/example [no test files] | ||
ok github.com/petar/GoLLRB/llrb 0.231s | ||
$ | ||
</pre> | ||
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<p>If a go subcommand is invoked with no paths listed, it operates on the | ||
current directory:</p> | ||
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<pre> | ||
$ cd github.com/google/codesearch/regexp | ||
$ go list | ||
github.com/google/codesearch/regexp | ||
$ go test -v | ||
=== RUN TestNstateEnc | ||
--- PASS: TestNstateEnc (0.00s) | ||
=== RUN TestMatch | ||
--- PASS: TestMatch (0.00s) | ||
=== RUN TestGrep | ||
--- PASS: TestGrep (0.00s) | ||
PASS | ||
ok github.com/google/codesearch/regexp 0.018s | ||
$ go install | ||
$ | ||
</pre> | ||
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<p>That "<code>go install</code>" subcommand installs the latest copy of the | ||
package into the pkg directory. Because the go command can analyze the | ||
dependency graph, "<code>go install</code>" also installs any packages that | ||
this package imports but that are out of date, recursively.</p> | ||
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<p>Notice that "<code>go install</code>" was able to determine the name of the | ||
import path for the package in the current directory, because of the convention | ||
for directory naming. It would be a little more convenient if we could pick | ||
the name of the directory where we kept source code, and we probably wouldn't | ||
pick such a long name, but that ability would require additional configuration | ||
and complexity in the tool. Typing an extra directory name or two is a small | ||
price to pay for the increased simplicity and power.</p> | ||
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<h2>Limitations</h2> | ||
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<p>As mentioned above, the go command is not a general-purpose build | ||
tool. | ||
In particular, it does not have any facility for generating Go | ||
source files <em>during</em> a build, although it does provide | ||
<a href="/cmd/go/#hdr-Generate_Go_files_by_processing_source"><code>go</code> | ||
<code>generate</code></a>, | ||
which can automate the creation of Go files <em>before</em> the build. | ||
For more advanced build setups, you may need to write a | ||
makefile (or a configuration file for the build tool of your choice) | ||
to run whatever tool creates the Go files and then check those generated source files | ||
into your repository. This is more work for you, the package author, | ||
but it is significantly less work for your users, who can use | ||
"<code>go get</code>" without needing to obtain and build | ||
any additional tools.</p> | ||
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<h2>More information</h2> | ||
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<p>For more information, read <a href="/doc/code.html">How to Write Go Code</a> | ||
and see the <a href="/cmd/go/">go command documentation</a>.</p> |
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<!--{ | ||
"Title": "/doc/articles/" | ||
}--> | ||
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<p> | ||
See the <a href="/doc/#articles">Documents page</a> and the | ||
<a href="/blog/index">Blog index</a> for a complete list of Go articles. | ||
</p> |
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