A common and recommended way to track and lock tool dependencies in Go projects is to add a file tools.go with build constraint // +build tools as mentioned here: https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Modules#how-can-i-track-tool-dependencies-for-a-module
But doing it this way in main module also means tool dependencies are mixed together with main module dependencies. If main module is vendored, tool dependencies are also vendored together.
A tweak to above setup is to create a separate Go module for tools.go (.i.e. a separate go.mod in tools sub-directory)
- Main module and tools module are 2 separate modules, so dependencies in
go.modare separated from each other - Main module and tools module can use mix of vendoring and GOPATH. E.g. for tool module, since it's used less frequent, people might use GOPATH instead of vendoring to avoid bloating repository size. The setup in this repo uses vendoring for main module and GOPATH for tool module
- All go commands related to tooling must be run in
toolssub-directory, .e.g.cd tools && go install github.com/golang/mock/mockgen
- Tools/libraries that are required for compilation of main module go to main module
go.mod - Other tools (.e.g.
golangci-lint) go to tools modulego.mod - Special case:
github.com/golang/mockmodule includesgithub.jparrowsec.cn/golang/mock/gomockandgithub.jparrowsec.cn/golang/mock/mockgenpackages.gomockis required for compilation of main module (since it's imported and used in main module tests), whilemockgenis only used as a code generation tool and is not needed when compiling main module- in this case,
github.com/golang/mockcan be included as dependency to both main module and tool module. Their version will be tracked separately from each other.github.com/golang/mock/gomockwill be imported and vendored with main module.github.com/golang/mock/mockgenis only in tool module, not vendored together with main module