cmd/go: poor error message for misseting GOENV on windows

[SkybuckFlying]

Go version

go version go1.19.13 windows/amd64

Output of go env in your module/workspace:

PS G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19> go env
set GO111MODULE=
set GOARCH=amd64
set GOBIN=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOBIN
set GOCACHE=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOCACHE
set GOENV=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOENV
set GOEXE=.exe
set GOEXPERIMENT=
set GOFLAGS=
set GOHOSTARCH=amd64
set GOHOSTOS=windows
set GOINSECURE=
set GOMODCACHE=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOPATH\pkg\mod
set GONOPROXY=
set GONOSUMDB=
set GOOS=windows
set GOPATH=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOPATH
set GOPRIVATE=
set GOPROXY=https://proxy.golang.org,direct
set GOROOT=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOROOT
set GOSUMDB=sum.golang.org
set GOTMPDIR=
set GOTOOLDIR=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOROOT\pkg\tool\windows_amd64
set GOVCS=
set GOVERSION=go1.19.13
set GCCGO=gccgo
set GOAMD64=v1
set AR=ar
set CC=gcc
set CXX=g++
set CGO_ENABLED=1
set GOMOD=NUL
set GOWORK=
set CGO_CFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_CPPFLAGS=
set CGO_CXXFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_FFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_LDFLAGS=-g -O2
set PKG_CONFIG=pkg-config
set GOGCCFLAGS=-m64 -mthreads -Wl,--no-gc-sections -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=G:\Temp\go-build758810112=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches
PS G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19>

What did you do?

I want GO to use G: drive excluslively and not wear and tear my C: SSD drive:

For this purpose a batch file was created to make sense out of the mess that GO and it's installers create:
(the installers cannot be used to install multiple go versions because they de-install the old versions, so the installers were by-passed and instead zip files used and extract to GOROOT).

SetupGOVersion1.19V2.bat

@echo off
echo Setting up Go environment for version 1.19...

:: Define base folder
SET GO_VERSION=version 1.19
SET BASE_PATH=G:\GOFOLDERS\%GO_VERSION%

:: Create necessary folders
mkdir "%BASE_PATH%\GOPATH"
mkdir "%BASE_PATH%\GOCACHE"
mkdir "%BASE_PATH%\GOMODCACHE"
mkdir "%BASE_PATH%\GOROOT"
mkdir "%BASE_PATH%\GOBIN"
mkdir "%BASE_PATH%\GOENV"

:: Configure Go environment variables
go env -w GOPATH="G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOPATH"
go env -w GOCACHE="G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOCACHE"
go env -w GOMODCACHE="G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOMODCACHE"
go env -w GOROOT="G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOROOT"
go env -w GOBIN="G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOBIN"
go env -w GOENV="G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOENV"

echo Setup complete! Restart your shell to apply changes.
pause

I also want the capability to try out different GO versions, I want to use GopherJS and try it out then I want to convert it to GopherDelphi so I can convert ViteLabs blockchain from Go to Delphi and say goodbye to the mess/dictactorship that GO is which is annoying. I just want access to all source code files and set things up the way I want without all this automation nonsense which seems to backfire and create a mess out of things, though I will continue to try and make sense out of all these paths that GO seems to want to use, vendor not yet included, packages, modules, bin paths, gopaths, caches, it's a total and completely understandable mess.

Delphi on the other hand has two things mainly: A runtime environment and my source files/libraries which I can set up nicely in a project file, this is the way to do something developement, not this automatic crap that nobody understands.

Anyway continueing with the problem:

Environment variables setup in windows 11/advanced settings as follows:
GOROOT
GOBIN
GOPATH
GOCACHE
GOENV

To these folders

Also GOROOT\BIN and GOBIN added to path.

Go executes commands.

However:

go env -w GOFLAGS="-mod=vendor"

returns error:

PS G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19> go env -w GOFLAGS="-mod=vendor"
go: reading go env config: read G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOENV: The handle is invalid.
PS G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19>

The env file was first copied from some messy windows 11 user app data folder to this folder above.

G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOENV

The contents of the file is:

GOBIN=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOBIN
GOCACHE=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOCACHE
GOFLAGS=-mod=vendor
GOMODCACHE=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOMODCACHE
GOPATH=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOPATH
GOROOT=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOROOT

There was a copieing error initially, some file was still open in editor or command line, file was re-created, permissions given, full control via command:

icacls "G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOENV" /grant Everyone:F /T

Still the error remains...

Very weird...

I suspect it might be a bug in this go version... otherwise I am stumped.

Also the cache folder was not set by the command env -v etc... that was odd, so added this environment variable as well.

Final remark:

Please test your GO software to run of a different drive then C:

Use resource monitor on from task manager/performance on windows 11 to make absolutely sure that not a single file is written to C:

That would be a blessing.

What did you see happen?

PS G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19> go env -w GOFLAGS="-mod=vendor"
go: reading go env config: read G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOENV: The handle is invalid.
PS G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19>

What did you expect to see?

It should work.

[SkybuckFlying]

I shall now try to install a newer version of GO the same way to see if the issue persists...

I shall report in this comment as I tested latest GO version:

New batch file for latest go version:

SetupGOVersion1.24.3v1.bat

@echo off
echo Setting up Go environment for version 1.24.3...

:: Define base folder
SET GO_VERSION=version 1.24.3
SET BASE_PATH=G:\GOFOLDERS\%GO_VERSION%

:: Create necessary folders
mkdir "%BASE_PATH%\GOPATH"
mkdir "%BASE_PATH%\GOCACHE"
mkdir "%BASE_PATH%\GOMODCACHE"
mkdir "%BASE_PATH%\GOROOT"
mkdir "%BASE_PATH%\GOBIN"
mkdir "%BASE_PATH%\GOENV"

:: Configure Go environment variables
go env -w GOPATH="G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOPATH"
go env -w GOCACHE="G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOCACHE"
go env -w GOMODCACHE="G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOMODCACHE"
go env -w GOROOT="G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOROOT"
go env -w GOBIN="G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOBIN"
go env -w GOENV="G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOENV"

echo Setup complete! Restart your shell to apply changes.
pause

Execution leads to:

Setting up Go environment for version 1.24.3...
warning: go env -w GOPATH=... does not override conflicting OS environment variable
go: reading go env config: read G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOENV: The handle is invalid.
warning: go env -w GOCACHE=... does not override conflicting OS environment variable
go: reading go env config: read G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOENV: The handle is invalid.
go: reading go env config: read G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOENV: The handle is invalid.
warning: go env -w GOROOT=... does not override conflicting OS environment variable
go: reading go env config: read G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOENV: The handle is invalid.
warning: go env -w GOBIN=... does not override conflicting OS environment variable
go: reading go env config: read G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.19\GOENV: The handle is invalid.
go: GOENV can only be set using the OS environment
Setup complete! Restart your shell to apply changes.
Press any key to continue . . .

^ Seems normal, I might change these environment variables in windows 11 manually or maybe this can be automated as well.

After running this batchfile the environment variables keep pointing to the older version, no problem, I will update them and make them point to the new version.

Switch batchfile create:

SwitchToGOVersion1.24.3v1.bat

@echo off

echo Switching to Go environment 1.24.3...

:: Set up Go environment variables
setx GOBIN "G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOBIN"
setx GOCACHE "G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOCACHE"
setx GOENV "G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOENV"
setx GOPATH "G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOPATH"
setx GOROOT "G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOROOT"

:: Alert user to update PATH manually
echo ======================================================
echo  IMPORTANT: Please update the PATH environment variable
echo  in Windows manually to include:
echo  G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOROOT\bin
echo  G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOBIN
echo  You can do this via:
echo  Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings
echo  Click "Environment Variables" > Edit "Path"
echo ======================================================

echo Go environment updated successfully! Restart your terminal.
pause

Batch file updated to prevent creating empty files because of >

@echo off

echo Switching to Go environment 1.24.3...

:: Set up Go environment variables
setx GOBIN "G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOBIN"
setx GOCACHE "G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOCACHE"
setx GOENV "G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOENV"
setx GOPATH "G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOPATH"
setx GOROOT "G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOROOT"

:: Alert user to update PATH manually
echo ======================================================
echo  IMPORTANT: Please update the PATH environment variable
echo  in Windows manually to include:
echo  G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOROOT\bin
echo  G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOBIN
echo  You can do this via:
echo  Control Panel  System  Advanced System Settings
echo  Click "Environment Variables"  Edit "Path"
echo ======================================================

echo Go environment updated successfully! Restart your terminal.
pause

Output/Result of switch batch file:

Switching to Go environment 1.24.3...

SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.

SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.

SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.

SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.

SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.
======================================================
 IMPORTANT: Please update the PATH environment variable
 in Windows manually to include:
 You can do this via:
======================================================
Go environment updated successfully! Restart your terminal.
Press any key to continue . . .

Environment variables indeed changed.

Manually changed the folder in PATH.

(Extracting new GO version into GOROOT (takes 2 minutes on a harddisk because of many tiny files, next moving go to GOROOT, deleting GO folder, these operations bit risky cause of selection risks... but so far so good it seems.)

Opening new powershell and running GO version and GO env to check:

GO VERSION output:

PS G:\GOFOLDERS> go version
go version go1.24.3 windows/amd64

GO ENV output:

PS G:\GOFOLDERS> go version
go version go1.24.3 windows/amd64
PS G:\GOFOLDERS> go env
set AR=ar
set CC=gcc
set CGO_CFLAGS=-O2 -g
set CGO_CPPFLAGS=
set CGO_CXXFLAGS=-O2 -g
set CGO_ENABLED=1
set CGO_FFLAGS=-O2 -g
set CGO_LDFLAGS=-O2 -g
set CXX=g++
set GCCGO=gccgo
set GO111MODULE=
set GOAMD64=v1
set GOARCH=amd64
set GOAUTH=netrc
set GOBIN=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOBIN
set GOCACHE=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOCACHE
set GOCACHEPROG=
set GODEBUG=
set GOENV=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOENV
set GOEXE=.exe
set GOEXPERIMENT=
set GOFIPS140=off
set GOFLAGS=
set GOGCCFLAGS=-m64 -mthreads -Wl,--no-gc-sections -fmessage-length=0 -ffile-prefix-map=G:\Temp\go-build2172701346=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches
set GOHOSTARCH=amd64
set GOHOSTOS=windows
set GOINSECURE=
set GOMOD=NUL
set GOMODCACHE=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOPATH\pkg\mod
set GONOPROXY=
set GONOSUMDB=
set GOOS=windows
set GOPATH=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOPATH
set GOPRIVATE=
set GOPROXY=https://proxy.golang.org,direct
set GOROOT=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOROOT
set GOSUMDB=sum.golang.org
set GOTELEMETRY=local
set GOTELEMETRYDIR=C:\Users\skybu\AppData\Roaming\go\telemetry
set GOTMPDIR=
set GOTOOLCHAIN=auto
set GOTOOLDIR=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOROOT\pkg\tool\windows_amd64
set GOVCS=
set GOVERSION=go1.24.3
set GOWORK=
set PKG_CONFIG=pkg-config
PS G:\GOFOLDERS>

go env -w GOFLAGS="-mod=vendor" output:

PS G:\GOFOLDERS> go env -w GOFLAGS="-mod=vendor"
go: reading go env config: read G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOENV: Incorrect function.
PS G:\GOFOLDERS>

Trying to correct this error by copieing env file:

Updated env file:

GOBIN=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOBIN
GOCACHE=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOCACHE
GOFLAGS=-mod=vendor
GOMODCACHE=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOMODCACHE
GOPATH=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOPATH
GOROOT=G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.4\GOROOT

Trying again for testing purposes to see if env file is working correctly:

go env -w GOFLAGS="-mod=vendor" output:

same error, trying again with new shell:

Issues remains:

PS G:\GOFOLDERS> go env -w GOFLAGS="-mod=vendor"
go: reading go env config: read G:\GOFOLDERS\version 1.24.3\GOENV: Incorrect function.
PS G:\GOFOLDERS>

^ Strange.

[SkybuckFlying]

Conclusion both versions of GO do not seem to handle moving the env file to a different drive/folder correctly ?!?

[SkybuckFlying]

Even after moving the file back/re-creating it in:

C:\Users\skybu\AppData\Roaming\go

and changing the GOENV environement variable to point to it:

PS G:\GOFOLDERS> go env -w GOFLAGS="-mod=vendor"
go: reading go env config: read C:\Users\skybu\AppData\Roaming\go: Incorrect function.
PS G:\GOFOLDERS>

The problem remains ?! Weird !

[gabyhelp]

Related Issues

• error gopath #66295 (closed)
• cmd/go: better error message for GOPATH set to GOROOT has no effect #70093 (closed)
• can't set GOCACHE via GOENV #49028 (closed)
• go env #57544 (closed)
• Goenv #55831 (closed)
• cmd/go: can't inspect go env when $GOPATH/go.mod exists #46807 (closed)
• go env #33114 (closed)
• go installing #71520 (closed)
• no go files in C:/Users #44891 (closed)
• cmd/go: Setting an invalid path with "go env -w GOTMPDIR=x" prevents use of go tool #40932 (closed)

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

[SkybuckFlying]

AI suggests checking permissions, seems fine:

PS G:\GOFOLDERS> icacls "C:\Users\skybu\AppData\Roaming\go"
C:\Users\skybu\AppData\Roaming\go NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(OI)(CI)(F)
BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(OI)(CI)(F)
SuperPC2023\skybu:(I)(OI)(CI)(F)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files
PS G:\GOFOLDERS>

Also it has A flag from another command...

[SkybuckFlying]

Also notice how a new folder is being used: GOTELEMETRYDIR... I tried adding this to environement variables has no effect, so the only way to prevent writing to C again is to turn this off.

[seankhliao]

I'm not sure how, but "Incorrect function" is something returned directly from windows, it's not something we can help you with.

Unlike many projects, the Go project does not use GitHub Issues for general discussion or asking questions. GitHub Issues are used for tracking bugs and proposals only.

For questions please refer to https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Questions

[SkybuckFlying]

Trying out latest go version 1.24.3 for gopherjs leads to:

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Install the latest PowerShell for new features and improvements! https://aka.ms/PSWindows

PS G:\Junk\test vite to js conversion> gopherjs build -v -o ./cmd/gvite/output.js ./cmd/gvite --tags '!storage!'
GOOS is not supported, the supported GOOS values are linux and darwin. The GopherJS is falling back to GOOS=linux
GopherJS 1.17.2+go1.17.9 requires a Go 1.17.x distribution, but found version go1.24.3
time 2025-04-30T18:13:34Z

GopherJS 1.17.2+go1.17.9 requires a Go 1.17.x distribution, but found version go1.24.3
time 2025-04-30T18:13:34Z

PS G:\Junk\test vite to js conversion>

So this does show the need to switch GO versions to use this tool.

[SkybuckFlying]

Seems like using latest installed wrong version:

go install github.com/gopherjs/gopherjs@latest

PS G:\Junk\test vite to js conversion> gopherjs version
GOOS is not supported, the supported GOOS values are linux and darwin. The GopherJS is falling back to GOOS=linux
GopherJS 1.17.2+go1.17.9
PS G:\Junk\test vite to js conversion>

A beta version should be installed instead...

[SkybuckFlying]

Better to install beta version:

PS G:\Junk\test vite to js conversion> go install github.com/gopherjs/gopherjs@v1.19.0-beta1

Not sure what happens, maybe it overwrites older version...

PS G:\Junk\test vite to js conversion> go install github.com/gopherjs/gopherjs@v1.19.0-beta1
go: downloading github.com/gopherjs/gopherjs v1.19.0-beta1
go: downloading golang.org/x/sync v0.3.0
go: downloading golang.org/x/tools v0.11.0
go: downloading github.com/visualfc/goembed v0.3.3
go: downloading github.com/evanw/esbuild v0.18.0
go: downloading golang.org/x/term v0.0.0-20220411215600-e5f449aeb171
go: downloading github.com/fsnotify/fsnotify v1.5.1
go: downloading golang.org/x/sys v0.10.0
# github.com/gopherjs/gopherjs
link: github.com/visualfc/goembed/parser: invalid reference to go/build.parseGoEmbed
PS G:\Junk\test vite to js conversion>

Seems new problem^

[SkybuckFlying]

Will try switching back to older version, to continue my attempt at trying out GopherJS, just took a detour to try out different go versions to see what happens and also prevent writes to C drive... however GopherJS also has it's own CACHE and should be changed to, to not use C drive...