/go-multi-version-demo

This repo demonstrates a workaround to use multiple versions of a dependency using go mod.

Primary LanguageGo

go-multi-version-demo

This repo demonstrates a workaround to use multiple versions of a dependency using go mod.

Problem

If you want to use multiple versions x1.y1.z1 & x2.y2.z2 of a Dependency,then x1 & x2 cannot be same ,i.e., you can use multiple major versions of the dependency in your repository.

Solution

We can use replace in our go.mod file.

  1. Clone the source code of the dependency package locally in multiple locations as per your versions. For eg.,

    for v0.8.1 clone at path : /Users/apple/go/src/github.com/pkg/errorsv0.8.1 and run git checkout v0.8.1 (release tag)

    go.mod file should have a part like below :

    replace github.com/pkg/errors/081 => /Users/apple/go/src/github.com/pkg/errorsv0.8.1
replace github.com/pkg/errors/091 => /Users/apple/go/src/github.com/pkg/errorsv0.9.1

    Here, the right side of the => has to be a local path, and the left side is the package name that will be used in the import command in .go files. Refer to the code files for further clarification.

  2. run go mod vendor && go build .

NOTE

the author of the repository managing this dependency case in the repository using reploce clause can run go mod vendor && go build . to generate the binary and further ditribute the software.

HOWEVER

the contributors of the repository will have to ensure in their fork, that they do not tinker with the vendored packages. In this demo case, vendor/github.com/pkg/errors/081 && vendor/github.com/pkg/errors/091 are the vendored packages.

If the vendored packages are deleted, then the contributor will have to clone and setup the packages at local path, as described in step 1.