290

Starting with v1.11 Go added support for modules. Commands

go mod init <package name>
go build

would generate go.mod and go.sum files that contain all found versions for the package dependencies. If a module does not have any releases, the latest commit of that module is used. If a module does have releases, the latest one is picked as a dependency.

However sometimes I would need functionality that is not in a published release yet, but from a commit made after that release. How do I set go.mod to point not to a release of a module, but to a specific commit in the module's repository? It looks like I can do it by hand in go.mod with

module /my/module
    
require (
    ...
    github.com/someone/some_module v0.0.0-20181121201909-af044c0995fe
    ...
)

where v0.0.0 does not correspond to the last published release tag, 20181121201909 would be a commit timestamp and af044c0995fe would be the commit hash? Should such information to be found and entered by hand, or there is a better way?

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8 Answers 8

Reset to default
405

Just 'go get' at the commit hash you want:

go get github.com/someone/some_module@af044c0995fe

'go get' will correctly update the dependency files (go.mod, go.sum).

More information: https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Modules#how-to-upgrade-and-downgrade-dependencies

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7 Comments

In case getting error "unknown revision" or "invalid version" - Make sure that you did not specify hash of PR (pull request). Even a merged PR might be wrong. Look for the commit hash in the repo under /commits, but not under /pulls. See more info here: golang/go#31191 explicitly filters out these kind of commits.
the OP askes how to add it to go.mod file , not how to do a go get
@Nulik go get is the correct way to update/add-to go.mod in the way the OP asked.
Note that you can also specify a branch or tag name instead of a commit hash.
@cambraca you cant use the branch name if it's past v1 or you will get invalid version: go.mod has post-v1 module path
|
201

In addition the answer from Everton on using go get github.com/someone/some_module@af044c0995fe to get a specific commit, you can also use branch names such as:

  • go get github.com/someone/some_module@master
  • go get github.com/someone/some_module@dev_branch

Those examples get the latest commit on the corresponding branch.

It will still be recorded as a pseudo-version in your go.mod file, such as v0.0.0-20171006230638-a6e239ea1c69. (This helps provide a simple total ordering across all versions based on standard semver ordering).

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5 Comments

thanks for the pseudo-version explanation. i was trying to do a replace to use a temporary fork of some dependency, but could not find a way to make that replacement to point to some commit. Had to create a version tag and specify it like this replace github.com/original/somelib => github.com/fork/somelib v1.2.3, which is a bit too much when i just want to quickly test stuff. replace github.com/original/somelib => github.com/fork/somelib@commithash and replace github.com/original/somelib => github.com/fork/somelib commithash do not work
1. push your code to github.com/fork/somelib @ dev branch 2. modify your go.mod file, add a line replace github.com/original/somelib => github.com/fork/somelib dev 3. execute go mod tidy command. After done these, go will auto replace the dev in go.mod to a suitiable pseudo-version.
you cant use the branch name if it's past v1 or you will get invalid version: go.mod has post-v1 module path
The @dev_branch doesn't work if the branch name contains slashes.
Like mentioned by @hookenz, branch with slashes don't work, in those case use the full commit + go mod tidy: ... => github.com/<org>/<name> b5906304132ae4379efd349040df095e555ba5b7 of said branch
41

If you want to temporarily substitute a dependency to a local directory (for example if you work on 2 modules sumultaneously) you can add replace statement at the end of go.mod file:

module example.com/mypkg

go 1.15

require (
  gitlab.com/someone/a_package v0.14.2
)

replace gitlab.com/someone/a_package => ../my_forks/a_package
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2 Comments

The question is asking about latest commit in a remote repo, not a local checked-out state.
Thank you. I was trying to test a project with a remote module branch because I didn´t know it was possible to target a local directory.
32

I have been banging my head for some time that how it works for everyone and I am not able to run it. For me, I had to commit to master branch then only I was able to get it.

For go get to work with specific branch, commit id or tag, you need to enable a flag for go module by running below command

go env -w GO111MODULE=on

after this we will be able to do

go get repo@branchname
go get repo@tag
go get repo@commithash
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Comments

28

Also if you put the word latest in place of the tag in the go.mod file it will get changed to the latest tag the modules.

For example: 

module /my/module

require (
...
github.com/someone/some_module latest
...
)

will become 

module /my/module

require (
...
github.com/someone/some_module v2.0.39
...
)

after running go mod tidy

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1 Comment

That's probably the easiest!
14
  • Download source from branch
    go get your-repo@branch-name read output with go module version to be added to require or replace:
    go: downloading github.com/your-repo v1.2.3-0.20210609123456-123123123
  • Later this version can be found as output string of the following command
    go list -m -json your-repo@branch-name | jq '.|"\(.Path) \(.Version)"'
  • If jq is not installed on your PC - manually combine Path and Version values of result from:
    go list -m -json your-repo@branch-name
    separated by space:
    your-repository v1.2.3-0.20210609123456-123123123
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2 Comments

I got the following error: malformed module path "foo/bar": missing dot in first path element for the command: go list -m -json foo/bar@main
@Dentrax Try something like go list -m -json github.com/foo/bar@main
3

If you want a commit from the current tip, a very simple solution is to run

go get github.com/someone/some_module@master

(or whatever branch is wanted).

This will pull the right timestamp and commit hash into go.mod.

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Comments

1

to get the branchname you need to do it like that:
GOPROXY=direct go get -u github.com/someone/some-repo@branch-name

if you don't want to type it all the time you can do it like that permanently:
go env -w GOPROXY=direct

and then you can update just by:
go get github.com/someone/some-repo@branch-name

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