coming from a Node environment I used to install a specific version of a vendor lib into the project folder (node_modules) by telling npm to install that version of that lib from the package.json or even directly from the console, like so:

$ npm install express@4.0.0

Then I used to import that version of that package in my project just with:

var express = require('express');

Now, I want to do the same thing with go. How can I do that? Is it possible to install a specific version of a package? If so, using a centralized $GOPATH, how can I import one version instead of another?

I would do something like this:

$ go get
$ go get 

But then, how can I make a difference during the import?

4

15 Answers

Go 1.11 will have a feature called go modules and you can simply add a dependency with a version. Follow these steps:

go mod init .
go mod edit -require
go get -v -t ./...
go build
go install 

Here's more info on that topic -

3

Really surprised nobody has mentioned gopkg.in.

gopkg.in is a service that provides a wrapper (redirect) that lets you express versions as repo urls, without actually creating repos. E.g. vs , even though they both live at

• redirects to
• redirects to

This isn't perfect if the author is not following proper versioning practices (by incrementing the version number when breaking backwards compatibility), but it does work with branches and tags.

3

You can use git checkout to get an specific version and build your program using this version.

Example:

export GOPATH=~/
go get
cd ~/src/
git tag -l
# supose tag v0.0.2 is correct version
git checkout tags/v0.0.2
go run whateverpackage/main.go

3

A little cheat sheet on module queries.

To check all existing versions: e.g. go list -m -versions

1. Specific version @v1.2.8
2. Specific commit @c783230
3. Specific branch @master
4. Version prefix @v2
5. Comparison @>=2.1.5
6. Latest @latest

E.g. go get

2

Glide is a really elegant package management for Go especially if you come from Node's npm or Rust's cargo.

It behaves closely to Godep's new vendor feature in 1.6 but is way more easier. Your dependencies and versions are "locked" inside your projectdir/vendor directory without relying on GOPATH.

Install with brew (OS X)

$ brew install glide

Init the glide.yaml file (akin to package.json). This also grabs the existing imported packages in your project from GOPATH and copy then to the project's vendor/ directory.

$ glide init

Get new packages

$ glide get vcs/namespace/package

Update and lock the packages' versions. This creates glide.lock file in your project directory to lock the versions.

$ glide up

I tried glide and been happily using it for my current project.

2

Update 18-11-23: From Go 1.11 mod is official experiment. Please see @krish answer.
Update 19-01-01: From Go 1.12 mod is still official experiment. Starting in Go 1.13, module mode will be the default for all development.
Update 19-10-17: From Go 1.13 mod is official package manager.

Old answer:

You can set version by offical dep

dep ensure --add 

1

Nowadays you can just use go get for it. You can fetch your dependency by the version tag, branch or even the commit.

go get
go get
go get 

more details here - How to point Go module dependency in go.mod to a latest commit in a repo?

Go get will also install the binary, like it says in the documentation -

Get downloads the packages named by the import paths, along with their dependencies. It then installs the named packages, like 'go install'.

(from )

From Go 1.5 there's the "vendor experiment" that helps you manage dependencies. As of Go 1.6 this is no longer an experiment. Theres also some other options on the Go wiki..

Edit: as mentioned in this answer gopkg.in is a good option for pinning github-depdencies pre-1.5.

dep is the official experiment for dependency management for Go language. It requires Go 1.8 or newer to compile.

To start managing dependencies using dep, run the following command from your project's root directory:

dep init

After execution two files will be generated: Gopkg.toml ("manifest"), Gopkg.lock and necessary packages will be downloaded into vendor directory.

Let's assume that you have the project which uses package. dep will generate following files:

Gopkg.toml

# Gopkg.toml example
#
# Refer to
# for detailed Gopkg.toml documentation.
#
# required = [""]
# ignored = ["", ""]
#
# [[constraint]]
# name = ""
# version = "1.0.0"
#
# [[constraint]]
# name = ""
# branch = "dev"
# source = ""
#
# [[override]]
# name = ""
# version = "2.4.0"
[[constraint]] name = "" version = "1.2.0"

Gopkg.lock

# This file is autogenerated, do not edit; changes may be undone by the next 'dep ensure'.
[[projects]] name = "" packages = ["."] revision = "ea4d1f681babbce9545c9c5f3d5194a789c89f5b" version = "v1.2.0"
[solve-meta] analyzer-name = "dep" analyzer-version = 1 inputs-digest = "941e8dbe52e16e8a7dff4068b7ba53ae69a5748b29fbf2bcb5df3a063ac52261" solver-name = "gps-cdcl" solver-version = 1

There are commands which help you to update/delete/etc packages, please find more info on official github repo of dep (dependency management tool for Go).

1

go get is the Go package manager. It works in a completely decentralized way and how package discovery still possible without a central package hosting repository.

Besides locating and downloading packages, the other big role of a package manager is handling multiple versions of the same package. Go takes the most minimal and pragmatic approach of any package manager. There is no such thing as multiple versions of a Go package.

go get always pulls from the HEAD of the default branch in the repository. Always. This has two important implications:

1. As a package author, you must adhere to the stable HEAD philosophy. Your default branch must always be the stable, released version of your package. You must do work in feature branches and only merge when ready to release.

2. New major versions of your package must have their own repository. Put simply, each major version of your package (following semantic versioning) would have its own repository and thus its own import path.

   e.g. and

As someone building an application in Go, the above philosophy really doesn't have a downside. Every import path is a stable API. There are no version numbers to worry about. Awesome!

For more details :

8

The approach I've found workable is git's submodule system. Using that you can submodule in a given version of the code and upgrading/downgrading is explicit and recorded - never haphazard.

The folder structure I've taken with this is:

+ myproject
++ src
+++ myproject
+++ github.com
++++ submoduled_project of some kind.

2

That worked for me

GO111MODULE=on go get -u

There's a go edit -replace command to append a specific commit (even from another forked repository) on top of the current version of a package. What's cool about this option, is that you don't need to know the exact pseudo version beforehand, just the commit hash id.

For example, I'm using the stable version of package " v1.8.0".

Now I want - without modifying this line of required package in go.mod - to append a patch from my fork, on top of the ginkgo version:

$ GO111MODULE="on" go mod edit -replace=

After the first time you build or test your module, GO will try to pull the new version, and then generate the "replace" line with the correct pseudo version. For example in my case, it will add on the bottom of go.mod:

replace => v0.0.0-20190902135631-1995eead7451

It might be useful.

Just type this into your command prompt while cd your/package/src/

go get 

You get specific revision of package in question right into your source code, ready to use in import statement.

The current way to do this is to use go install

Starting in Go 1.17, installing executables with go get is deprecated. go install may be used instead.

go install 

Specific version

go install 

Specific commit

go install 

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