Installed godoc after altering GOPATH, now do I need what it put in my GOPATH?

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While following a tutorial I hit a wall when it wanted me to run godoc. It was missing.

After a bit of searching around, I discovered:

  • godoc has been changed for 1.2, so it's a separate library and binary.
  • You have to get it through "go get", which won't work without GOPATH.
  • Binary installations apparently include godoc? I installed from source, so it's not included by default.

I exported a GOPATH to my current application path /home/me/go_project/test. GOROOT was already set. (Note: GOPATH doesn't like to be set the same as GOROOT)

After that I ran "go get code.google.com/p/go.tools/cmd/godoc" and it dutifully installed the binary into my GOROOT/bin (yay!)

It also created a pkg installation under my /home/me/go_project/test/src/code.google.com/p... (Um...wat?)

I really don't need that code.google... bit under my test application; is there any reason Go would need that kept there? It doesn't alter anything in library paths or dependencies or anything, does it?

Essentially...can I just use the binary it put in GOROOT/bin and erase the stuff it put under my go_project application directory without affecting Go?

2
go
Have you read? golang.org/doc/code.html#Organization – Matt Sherman
@MattSherman Yup, had that set up.What I've been doing is creating a /home/me/go_project/project1, with its own src/pkg/bin directories. Then go_project/project2 with /src /bin /pkg. Seems like that means separate GOPATH for each project when I'm working on them (which seemed to be endorsed in a response to a godoc bug report, where someone said they set up a GOPATH manually for their projects.) – Bart Silverstrim
From my reading, under 1.2 they split how godoc is distributed when installed by source, so the binary will go into GOROOT/bin but the source/packages goes into the GOPATH you're currently working on. I didn't know if it affected something in the Go installation if I deleted the non-binary in the GOPATH part of its install (like with package management on platforms...does "go get" keep track of activity somewhere?) – Bart Silverstrim
This structure means that it's also really easy to update Go from source, while accidentally not upgrading some binaries in the Go installation...this was a kind of "check for understanding" that this is what's really happening on my part. – Bart Silverstrim
/src /pkg and /bin are intended for your whole Go workspace. Your individual projects live under /src. – Matt Sherman

2 Answers

1
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Essentially...can I just use the binary it put in GOROOT/bin and erase the stuff it put under my > go_project application directory without affecting Go?

Yes. Go binaries are statically linked (almost).

0
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Tbe answer to your question is yes. However if you plan on doing much Go dev you are going to want to setup a GOPATH eventually. Updating Godoc to a new version will need it. Any packages you might want for your dev work will be best installed into a GOPATH.

I would just bite the bullet and set one up.