Managing Go Tool Dependencies

Hein Meling

Last updated on Mar 5, 2025 1 min read

Edits:

2025-03-05: Removed gotip instructions since Go 1.24 is released.

You might be interested to take advantage of this new feature in Go 1.24.

That is, you can manage tool dependencies via the go.mod file, download and run them. Below is an example relevant for users of the Gorums library.

Managing Tool Dependencies

Now, back to the example of managing tool dependencies in go.mod. Here is how you can add tool dependencies:

go get -u -tool github.com/relab/gorums/cmd/protoc-gen-gorums
go get -u -tool google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc
go get -u -tool google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go

After which go.mod will have these lines added:

tool (
	github.com/relab/gorums/cmd/protoc-gen-gorums
	google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc
	google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go
)

Then you can do:

# Run the tool (must be in same repository as go.mod)
% pwd
/Users/meling/work/distsys/dat520
% go tool protoc-gen-gorums --version
protoc-gen-gorums v0.7.0-devel
% cd; pwd
/Users/meling
% go tool protoc-gen-gorums --version
go: no such tool "protoc-gen-gorums"
# Install all tools in $GOBIN (globally available)
% cd work/distsys/dat520
% go install tool
# Run the tool from anywhere
% protoc-gen-gorums --version
protoc-gen-gorums v0.7.0-devel

If you want to remove a tool dependency, you can do:

go mod edit -droptool google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc

After which go.mod will have these lines added:

tool (
	github.com/relab/gorums/cmd/protoc-gen-gorums
	google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go
)

Hein Meling

Professor of Distributed Systems

My main interest is in secure and dependable distributed computing, including cryptocurrencies and blockchains.