cmd/go: "go env GOTELEMETRY" should not be an alias of "go telemetry"

[zigo101]

Go version

go version go1.23.0 linux/amd64

Output of go env in your module/workspace:

.

What did you do?

$ go env GOTELEMETRY
off
$ go telemetry
off
$ go env -changed
GOSUMDB='off'
GOTOOLCHAIN='local'
GCCGO='/usr/bin/gccgo'

What did you see happen?

go env treats GOTELEMETRY as env var.

What did you expect to see?

go env sometimes treats GOTELEMETRY as env var, sometimes not. It is confused.

Consistency is important. go env and go env -changed should have the same attitude.

Related: #68930

[gabyhelp]

Related Issues and Documentation

• cmd/go: "go env -changed" never include GOTELEMETRY #68930 (closed)
• cmd/go: GOTELEMETRY=off environment variable has no effect #68928 (closed)
• Unknown go command variable GOTELEMETRY - how to disable telemetry? #67424 (closed)
• x/telemetry/internal/counter: ErrDisabled references non-existent GOTELEMETRY environment variable #65503 (closed)
• x/telemetry/godev/cmd/telemetrygodev: TestConfig fails when the `ENV` environment variable is set #62138 (closed)

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[seankhliao]

go env already reports various unsettable settings for debugging purposes such as GOVERSION, GOMOD, GOWORK in addition to GOTELEMETRY. It is quite useful for troubleshooting issues.

[zigo101]

It is reasonable that go env -changed doesn't include GOVERSION, GOMOD and GOWORK (they either have not a default value or not changeable).

But the value of GOTELEMETRY is configurable and it has a default value. If is confused that if is not reported by go env -changed when it isn't default.

[seankhliao]

GOTELEMETRY is not configurable, it's a separate setting set form $user_config_dir/go/telemetry/mode

[zigo101]

$ go telemetry local
$ go env GOTELEMETRY
local
$ go telemetry off
$ go env GOTELEMETRY
off

[ianlancetaylor]

@zigo101 It sounds like you are saying that the bug here is that go env -changed GOTELEMETRY does not correctly report that GOTELEMETRY has changed after someone runs a command like go telemetry on. Is that correct?

The bug title is that go env GOTELEMETRY should not be an alias of "go telemetry"`, but I don't see any obvious reason that that is buggy.

If I've misunderstood, can you show a sequence of commands that demonstrates a problem? I don't see any problem in the original post or in #68936 (comment). Thanks.

[zigo101]

If is just that the value of the env var of GOTELEMETRY is user configed, but when it is not the default value, it is not listed in go env -changed. That is werid. So either remove this env var or fix go env -changed will remove the weirdness.