Use govendor to implement vendoring -

The meaning of vendoring in Go is squeezing a project’s all dependencies into its vendor directory. Since Go 1.6, if there is a vendor directory in current package or its parent’s directory, the dependency will be searched in vendor directory first. Govendor is such a tool to help you make use of the vendor feature. In the following example, I will demonstrate how to use govendor step by step:

(1) To be more clear, I clean $GOPATH folder first:

  # tree
  .
  
  0 directories, 0 files

(2) I still use playstack project to do a demo, download it:

  # go get github.com/NanXiao/playstack/play
  # tree
  .
  ├── bin
  │   └── play
  ├── pkg
  │   └── linux_amd64
  │       └── github.com
  │           └── NanXiao
  │               └── stack.a
  └── src
      └── github.com
          └── NanXiao
              ├── playstack
              │   ├── LICENSE
              │   └── play
              │       └── main.go
              └── stack
                  ├── LICENSE
                  ├── README.md
                  ├── stack.go
                  └── stack_test.go
  
  11 directories, 8 files

The playstack depends on another 3rd-party package: stack.

(3) Install govendor:

  # go get -u github.com/kardianos/govendor

(4) Change to playstack directory, and run “govendor init” command:

  # cd src/github.com/NanXiao/playstack/
  # govendor init
  # tree
  .
  ├── LICENSE
  ├── play
  │   └── main.go
  └── vendor
      └── vendor.json
  
  2 directories, 3 files

You can see there is an additional vendor folder which contains vendor.json file:

  # cat vendor/vendor.json
  {
          "comment": "",
          "ignore": "test",
          "package": [],
          "rootPath": "github.com/NanXiao/playstack"
  }

(5) Execute “govendor add +external” command:

  # govendor add +external
  # tree
  .
  ├── LICENSE
  ├── play
  │   └── main.go
  └── vendor
      ├── github.com
      │   └── NanXiao
      │       └── stack
      │           ├── LICENSE
      │           ├── README.md
      │           └── stack.go
      └── vendor.json

Yeah, the stack project is copied to vendor directory now. Look at vendor/vendor.json file again:

  # cat vendor/vendor.json
  {
          "comment": "",
          "ignore": "test",
          "package": [
                  {
                          "checksumSHA1": "3v5ClsvqF5lU/3E3c+1gf/zVeK0=",
                          "path": "github.com/NanXiao/stack",
                          "revision": "bfb214dbdb387d1c561b3b6f305ee0d8444c864b",
                          "revisionTime": "2016-04-01T05:28:44Z"
                  }
          ],
          "rootPath": "github.com/NanXiao/playstack"
  }

The stack package info has been updated in vendor/vendor.json file.

Notice: “govendor add” copies packages from $GOPATH, and you can use “govendor fetch” to download packages from network. You can verify it through removing stack package in $GOPATH, and execute “govendor fetch github.com/NanXiao/stack” command.

(6) Update playstack in github:

This time, clean $GOPATH folder and run “go get github.com/NanXiao/playstack/play” again:

  # go get github.com/NanXiao/playstack/play
  # tree
  .
  ├── bin
  │   └── play
  ├── pkg
  │   └── linux_amd64
  │       └── github.com
  │           └── NanXiao
  │               └── playstack
  │                   └── vendor
  │                       └── github.com
  │                           └── NanXiao
  │                               └── stack.a
  └── src
      └── github.com
          └── NanXiao
              └── playstack
                  ├── LICENSE
                  ├── play
                  │   └── main.go
                  └── vendor
                      ├── github.com
                      │   └── NanXiao
                      │       └── stack
                      │           ├── LICENSE
                      │           ├── README.md
                      │           └── stack.go
                      └── vendor.json
  
  18 directories, 8 files

Compared to previous case, it is no need to store stack in $GOPATH/src/github.com/NanXiao directory, since playstack has embedded it in its vendor folder.

This is just a simple intro of govendor, for more commands’ usages, you should visit its project home page.

Reference: What does the term “vendoring” or “to vendor” mean for Ruby on Rails?;
Understanding and using the vendor folder;
Go Vendoring Beginner Tutorial. Source https://github.com/NanXiao/golang-101-hacks

vendor

See also