runtime/debug: document BuildInfo.Main.Version == "(devel)"

[mark-rushakoff]

What version of Go are you using (go version)?

$ go version
go version devel +571d93e977 Thu Dec 13 15:08:48 2018 +0000 darwin/amd64

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (go env)?

go env Output

$ go env
GOARCH="amd64"
GOBIN=""
GOCACHE="/Users/mr/Library/Caches/go-build"
GOEXE=""
GOFLAGS=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="darwin"
GOOS="darwin"
GOPATH="/Users/mr/go"
GOPROXY=""
GORACE=""
GOROOT="/Users/mr/gotip/src/github.com/golang/go"
GOTMPDIR=""
GOTOOLDIR="/Users/mr/gotip/src/github.com/golang/go/pkg/tool/darwin_amd64"
GCCGO="gccgo"
CC="clang"
CXX="clang++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
GOMOD="/Users/mr/gomod/debug-module-version-demo/go.mod"
CGO_CFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_CPPFLAGS=""
CGO_CXXFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_FFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_LDFLAGS="-g -O2"
PKG_CONFIG="pkg-config"
GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fno-caret-diagnostics -Qunused-arguments -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/var/folders/ct/bl4_z3g51ks8239_r2k07v_40000gn/T/go-build638578617=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches -fno-common"

What did you do?

Repro case is https://github.com/mark-rushakoff/debug-module-version-demo. It's a module, and its main.go contents are a simple use of debug.ReadBuildInfo:

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"runtime/debug"

	_ "rsc.io/quote"
)

func main() {
	bi, ok := debug.ReadBuildInfo()
	if !ok {
		panic("couldn't read build info")
	}

	fmt.Printf("%s version %s\n", bi.Path, bi.Main.Version)

	for _, d := range bi.Deps {
		fmt.Printf("\tbuilt with %s version %s\n", d.Path, d.Version)
	}
}

What did you expect to see?

I expected to see the first line print github.com/mark-rushakoff/debug-module-version-demo version v0.0.0-20181213... when checked out at an arbitrary commit, or github.com/mark-rushakoff/debug-module-version-demo version v0.0.1 when checked out at tag v0.0.1. I tried both go run . and go build . && ./debug-module-version-demo but both cases printed (devel).

What did you see instead?

github.com/mark-rushakoff/debug-module-version-demo version (devel)
	built with golang.org/x/text version v0.0.0-20170915032832-14c0d48ead0c
	built with rsc.io/quote version v1.5.2
	built with rsc.io/sampler version v1.3.0

Based on the behavior I've observed, it looks as though the main module returned by debug.ReadBuildInfo is hardcoded to (devel) for the main module, which I assume is intended behavior. If so, that's unfortunate for use cases like mycmd version to easily print the module version of the software being built; but it should be documented.

The current documentation at https://tip.golang.org/pkg/runtime/debug/#ReadBuildInfo does not mention (devel) in any way, nor does it mention any special behavior of the Main module.

/cc @hyangah since you're on git blame for src/runtime/debug/mod.go.

[bcmills]

We could perhaps detect the case where the main module happens to be a pristine checkout with a semantically-versioned tag, although that might be misleading if some other module has a cyclic requirement specifying a higher version than the tag.

[stapelberg]

+1.

I thought being able to print the program’s main module’s version was the whole point of embedding build information into the binary.

[mark-rushakoff]

#26404 (comment) is some separate uncertainty about when and why (devel) shows up. There are some linked issues there that seem to paint a fuller picture, but I don't have time to go through them right now.

I think this issue is still fully separate from #26404, as this is just about documenting (devel).