cmd/go: -workfile flag appears to not work with "go test"

[mvdan]

go version devel go1.18-051df0d722 Wed Sep 22 03:45:00 2021 +0000 linux/amd64

I am trying to test workspaces once again. I have lots of cloned git repositories, and often I just need to work on 2 or 3 at a time. I don't want to drop a single go.work; I need to switch between multiple workspaces depending on what I'm currently doing.

So I thought I'd drop a file like foo.work and temporarily use it via go test -workfile=../foo.work ./.... However, it appears to have no effect at all.

Worse even, it appears like go test -workfile=doesnotexist ./... also makes no difference at all. It seems like the flag is just never taking effect?

cc @matloob @bcmills @jayconrod

[mvdan]

I'm also surprised and slightly worried that I can't seem to find any test scripts exercising this flag :) Which probably explains why it doesn't work.

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/351750 mentions this issue: cmd/go: fix indentation of -workfile help text

[jayconrod]

Reproduced with go test. go list and go build seem to work fine though, which is weird.

go list -workfile=stop.work a
go build -workfile=stop.work a
go test -workfile=stop.work a

-- stop.work --
go 1.18

directory ./a
-- a/a.go --
package a
-- a/a_test.go --
package a
-- a/go.mod --
module a

go 1.18

There are a couple test scripts that use -workfile, work.txt and work_edit.txt. We do need something more robust though.

[mvdan]

You're absolutely right that there are some tests, I apparently can't grep :)

[mvdan]

@matloob I was wondering if you've had time to look into this bug - due to my workflow with many dozens of git repositories cloned, I am largely unable to properly test and daily drive workspaces :) My current alternative is to keep moving .work files around, but that's proving to be unusable when I'm working on multiple projects concurrently, as I can only have one single go.work file with my directory layout.

[matloob]

Sorry was heads down trying to get things in for the freeze
will look at it now

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/366174 mentions this issue: cmd/go: fix bug in using the workfile flag with tests