How Do Go Modules Handle Installable Commands Like `go get`?

How go modules interact with installable commands

Go modules provide a dependency management system for Go libraries by allowing them to be organized into hierarchical groups and automatically resolved and downloaded during compilation. However, for specific build dependencies, such as github.com/aprice/embed/cmd/embed, which require manual installation, the process slightly differs.

Using go get

go get is typically not the ideal tool for installing build dependencies because it primarily serves to download packages for import. Instead, you can use the following method to install and run such dependencies:

Creating a "tools" package

Create a tools directory within your project and place the dependency package, such as github.com/UnnoTed/fileb0x within a new file in this directory (e.g., tools/fileb0x.go).

Annotate the file with a // build tools comment to mark it as a tool, which indicates it will not be included as part of the main package but rather used as a build-time dependency.

Updating go.mod

Run go mod tidy to update the go.mod file and add the tool dependency to the module.

Vendoring (Optional)

To take advantage of the modules cache for the dependency, you can vendor the source code by running go mod vendor. This copies all dependencies into the project's vendor directory.

Using the installed dependency

To use the installed tool, you need to modify your build commands to include the -mod=vendor flag. For example:

go build -mod=vendor ./...
go generate -mod=vendor ./...

By following these steps, you can install and run build dependencies without directly importing them into your main program.

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