proposal: cmd/go: manage binaries installed in GOBIN

[georgettica]

As a user, I would like to have a command that iterates through my $GOBIN and checks if all of the packages I installed are in their latest version.
the new go install command is great and allows installing the binaries without changing anything on the machine.

some solutions I can see in mind for this:

1. have a similar solution of go.mod or a section inside go.mod that relates to binaries so go list can display them and then can be easily iterated on.
2. create a new go_install.mod specific for this solution
3. add metadata in the $GOBIN folder on what binary version was installed and the go install will read it when using the --list-outdated flag
4. other

this issue comes from the fact I have an update command that upgrades all of the components on my machine fairly frequently and rust has https://github.com/nabijaczleweli/cargo-update for that case

[georgettica]

this could also make the vim-go binary installation simpler
https://github.com/fatih/vim-go/blob/585e12d32b3a1defcf863bd405b440cefbd4e31a/plugin/go.vim#L78

[kortschak]

This can be done with external tooling, for example https://github.com/kortschak/ugbt/.

[georgettica]

Searched external tooling for a while and didn't find this.

I'll try it out and report back 😀

[beoran]

If go clean -i does not do this already then it should.

[georgettica]

I forgot to report back. the tool works great!
collaborated with @kortschak on it and created https://github.com/georgettica/ugbt-update-all-gobin to accomodate my own needs

[georgettica]

@beoran not sure how your comment is related to the issue, but if you meant:

go clean -i ${GO_REPO_NAME}@${GO_REPO_VERSION}

for deleting what was installed via gobin it didn't work.

[phanirithvij]

Found one https://github.com/nao1215/gup (an external tool)

[georgettica]

not as heavy into go binaries now, but if others think that gup is more mature than ugbt I'll switch my stuff there

[mvdan]

I thought I'd add my 2c to this issue: I have a script that reinstalls a set of tools I use regularly at their latest (or master/main, depending on each case) versions. It's much dumber than the other kinds of automatic tools proposed here, but I'm fine with that. Every now and then I'll delete my entire GOBIN, so any tools that I installed once and miss, I add to the script so they are reinstalled and kept up to date.

[vikblom]

I think it would make sense if go install could manage and keep programs at least up to date, both in terms of source code and compiled-with version.

I have my own program that does what I expect gup and other tools are doing. Loop over programs in $GOBIN and work with the version info the compiler puts in binaries (since a while back).