I'm playing with libnbd go module, planning to use it in a new command[1]
The biggest obstacle for me is that the module is not published in a way that
Go developers expect.
The module is listed in:
https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/libguestfs/libnbd/golang
But the module actually lives in:
https://github.com/libguestfs/libnbd/tree/master/golang/src/libguestfs.or...
So the pkg.go.dev page is broken, .e.g no there is no documation or license, and
the suggested import is wrong.
The module name is "libguestfs.org/libnbd". But if you try to use it,
for example
in the (improved) example from libnbd-golang.pod:
$ cat test.go
package main
import "fmt"
import "libguestfs.org/libnbd"
func main() {
h, err := libnbd.Create()
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
defer h.Close()
uri := "nbd://localhost"
err = h.ConnectUri(uri)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
size, err := h.GetSize()
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Printf("size of %s = %d\n", uri, size)
}
$ go mod init example/test
go: creating new go.mod: module example/test
go: to add module requirements and sums:
go mod tidy
$ go mod tidy
go: finding module for package
libguestfs.org/libnbd
example/test imports
libguestfs.org/libnbd: cannot find module providing package
libguestfs.org/libnbd: unrecognized import path
"libguestfs.org/libnbd": reading
https://libguestfs.org/libnbd?go-get=1: 404 Not Found
If we use
libguestfs.org,
https://libguestfs.org/libnbd?go-get=1
should return the expected
metadata instead of 404.
But even if "libguestfs.org/libnbd" would work, we cannot use the
module from the source
since the source is missing the generated files (wrappers.go, binding.go, ...).
It looks like the only ways to use the module are:
- Vendor the go code from the tarball.
I did not try this since I don't want to copy libnbd into source into
my project.
- Clone and build libnbd locally, and replace
libguestfs.org with the
path to your local source
$ go mod edit -replace
libguestfs.org/libnbd=../../src/libnbd/golang/src/libguestfs.org/libnbd
$ go mod tidy
go: found
libguestfs.org/libnbd in
libguestfs.org/libnbd
v0.0.0-00010101000000-000000000000
$ cat go.mod
module example/test
go 1.16
replace
libguestfs.org/libnbd =>
../../src/libnbd/golang/src/libguestfs.org/libnbd
require
libguestfs.org/libnbd v0.0.0-00010101000000-000000000000
But the version is wrong - it should be v1.10.0.
I think the issue is missing tag:
https://golang.org/ref/mod#vcs-version
If a module is defined in a subdirectory within the repository,
that is, the module subdirectory
portion of the module path is not empty, then each tag name must
be prefixed with the module
subdirectory, followed by a slash. For example, the module
golang.org/x/tools/gopls is defined
in the gopls subdirectory of the repository with root path
golang.org/x/tools. The version v0.4.0
of that module must have the tag named gopls/v0.4.0 in that repository.
So the linbd project needs a tag like:
golang/src/libguestfs.org/libnbd/v1.10.0
Removing the "src/libguestfs.org" directories will clean things up:
golang/libnbd/v1.10.0
I hope we can solve this issue. Making the go binding easy to use for
developers is
important for making libnbd more popular in the Go community.
Another issue, what is the license of the libnbd Go module?
The project license is LGPL 2.1, but how can tools find the
license when we point them to a subdirectory?, and the license
is not using a standard file name?
Some modules have a GPL header, and some LGPL:
$ git grep -n 'GNU General Public' golang | wc -l
66
$ git grep -n 'GNU Lesser General Public' golang | wc -l
6
I guess using LGPL is the right license?
I think the directory with the module should have a LICENSE file to
make this clear, and libnbd-golang.pod should have a LICENSE section.
Nir