Delete tooling source code once it's installed

[ahmetb]

For tools like go-outline go-symbols gocode godef golint gopkgs gorename goreturns guru vscode-go plugin installs, can we delete their source code from $GOPATH/src once they are installed to $GOPATH/bin?

There's not much point of keeping these around I suppose?

[ramya-rao-a]

That's a good idea, there is no need to bloat up the user's workspace.
Need to ensure that if the source code already exists before tool installation, we don't delete it.

[vanackere]

I don't thing vscode-go should interact with user GOPATH at all. Installing packages there automatically is not a nice behaviour, but automatically deleting directories there would be even worse (what if the user has installed those packages for other uses ?).
IMHO the right fix would be to use a temporary GOPATH (under /tmp or %TEMPDIR%) to build the binaries and copy them somewhere under the .vscode directory. The temporary GOPATH could then be safely deleted.

[ahmetb]

I think the ideal solution is to install these tools permanently at some path that can be shared across projects, outside $GOPATH.

[ramya-rao-a]

With #351 merged in, there will now be an option to install the Go tools that the Go extension needs in a separate location.
Deleting the source code for these tools in this situation is doable

[ramya-rao-a]

The latest update (0.6.53) gives the user an option to install the go tools to an alternate location.

This is done via the new setting go.toolsGopath where you can provide the alternate location.

Remember to run Go: Install Tools after setting the above setting, so that the tools get installed to this location. After which, you can safely delete the ones from your GOPATH.

Note: dlv and gometalinter tools are exceptions to this rule. Reason being that gometalinter internally installs linters and expects them to be in the user's GOPATH. And that the debugger is not aware of any VS Code settings and so will not be able to find dlv from any location other than PATH or user's GOPATH

Please give it a try and comment here (or open a new issue) if you see any issues.