How Can I Install Go Tools Using Go Modules Without Breaking My Project?

go modules: Installing Go Tools

When using go modules as your dependency management system, you may encounter difficulties installing tools using the syntax:

go get -u github.com/go-critic/go-critic/...

This can result in an error:

go: cannot find main module; see 'go help modules'

To resolve this, consider these two scenarios:

Case 1: Installing Tools Without Modifying Your go.mod

If you do not intend to track the tool as a dependency in your go.mod, you have several options:

1. Move to a directory without a go.mod, such as /tmp, and run the go get command there.
2. Use the gobin command, which allows you to install or run binaries without affecting your current module's dependencies. Install using syntax like gobin install github.com/some/package.

For more details, see this related answer, which includes solutions for Go 1.11 and an upcoming option in Go 1.14.

Case 2: Tracking Tool Dependencies

If you wish to explicitly track a tool as a dependency in your go.mod, follow these steps:

1. Create a tools.go file in a separate package.
2. Add the //go:build tools build tag, like:

//go:build tools
// +build tools

package tools

import (
    _ "golang.org/x/tools/cmd/stringer"
)

The import statements will record tool version information in your go.mod, while the // build tools constraint prevents normal builds from importing your tools.

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