x/pkgsite: surface VCS clone path from the go-import meta tag
mvdan opened this issue · 4 comments
Take golang.org/x/mod, for example:
$ curl https://golang.org/x/mod
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
<meta name="go-import" content="golang.org/x/mod git https://go.googlesource.com/mod">
<meta name="go-source" content="golang.org/x/mod https://github.com/golang/mod/ https://github.com/golang/mod/tree/master{/dir} https://github.com/golang/mod/blob/master{/dir}/{file}#L{line}">
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/mod">
</head>
<body>
<a href="https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/mod">Redirecting to documentation...</a>
</body>
</html>
If I go to https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/mod, the only link I see is https://github.com/golang/mod, which is fine for browsing the source - but not for git clone, as github is just a mirror. I should be using https://go.googlesource.com/mod for that, but pkgsite doesn't make that evident.
I get that perhaps this is an internal detail that most people shouldn't need to be aware of, but it's still relevant for peoplel wishing to contribute to a module. Especially for the x repos hosted by Gerrit - I seem to recall that you have to clone from the right URL for git-codereview to work properly.
It may be that pkgsite itself doesn't have this information at the moment. (We may need #44742 for that.)
Please resurface that meta tag, as it was infinitely useful for anyone performing insight on their imports. Vanity paths have no other means of gleaning information on the repo other than to scrape HTML. Combined with the lack of an API to provide package metadata, the new site and forced redirect cripple consumer insight into packages.
I'd also suggest placing any other useful information into meta tags in lieu of an API. That's at least somewhat functional and quasi-contractual.