proposal: cmd/go: -json flag for go version -m

[hyangah]

$ go version -m -json ~/go/bin/gopls
flag provided but not defined: -json
usage: go version [-m] [-v] [file ...]
Run 'go help version' for details.

VS Code Go (TS/JS) uses go version -m when inspecting the tools versions.
If go version -m can output JSON-encoded runtime/debug.BuildSetting format,
it will help simplifying output parsing a lot.

[gabyhelp]

Related Issues and Documentation

• cmd/go: `go version -m` fails for target binaries compiled with go1.18 #50085 (closed)
• proposal: cmd/go: add go version -json #55136 (closed)

_{(Emoji vote if this was helpful or unhelpful; more detailed feedback welcome in this discussion.)}

[matloob]

I think we should do this.

[gopherbot]

Change https://go.dev/cl/619955 mentions this issue: cmd/go: support -json flag in go version

[xieyuschen]

hi, could I know any update for this proposal? thanks:)

[rsc]

This proposal has been added to the active column of the proposals project
and will now be reviewed at the weekly proposal review meetings.
— rsc for the proposal review group

[aclements]

Seems like a good and simple addition.

What should happen if the caller passes multiple binaries? Probably the output should be a concatenation of JSON objects (not a JSON array of objects). That would be consistent with how go list -json and several other go subcommands work, and makes the common case where you know you're only passing a single binary easiest to parse.

What should happen if you pass -json without -m? Probably just reject it with an error? (go version -json was already discussed in #55136)

[matloob]

What should happen if the caller passes multiple binaries? Probably the output should be a concatenation of JSON objects (not a JSON array of objects). That would be consistent with how go list -json and several other go subcommands work, and makes the common case where you know you're only passing a single binary easiest to parse.

Yes, that sounds good.

What should happen if you pass -json without -m? Probably just reject it with an error? (go version -json was already discussed in #55136)

Yes, we should reject it.