ahmetb/govvv

"go build" wrapper to add version info to Golang applications

govvv

The simple Go binary versioning tool that wraps the go build command.

⚠️⚠️⚠️ DEPRECATED: Go now offers build info natively. Please migrate to use that instead. I am no longer planning to maintain this project.

Stop worrying about -ldflags and go get github.com/ahmetb/govvv now.

Build Variables

Variable	Description	Example
main.GitCommit	short commit hash of source tree	0b5ed7a
main.GitBranch	current branch name the code is built off	master
main.GitState	whether there are uncommitted changes	clean or dirty
main.GitSummary	output of git describe --tags --dirty --always	v1.0.0, v1.0.1-5-g585c78f-dirty, fbd157c
main.BuildDate	RFC3339 formatted UTC date	2016-08-04T18:07:54Z
main.Version	contents of ./VERSION file, if exists, or the value passed via the -version option	2.0.0

Using govvv is easy

Just add the build variables you want to the main package and run:

old	✨ new ✨
go build	govvv build
go install	govvv install

Version your app with govvv

Create a VERSION file in your build root directory and add a Version variable to your main package.

Do you have your own way of specifying Version? No problem:

govvv lets you specify custom -ldflags

Your existing -ldflags argument will still be preserved:

govvv build -ldflags "-X main.BuildNumber=$buildnum" myapp

and the -ldflags constructed by govvv will be appended to your flag.

Don’t want to depend on govvv? It’s fine!

You can just pass a -print argument and govvv will just print the go build command with -ldflags for you and will not execute the go tool:

$ govvv build -print
go build \
    -ldflags \
    "-X main.GitCommit=57b9870 -X main.GitBranch=dry-run -X main.GitState=dirty -X main.Version=0.1.0 -X main.BuildDate=2016-08-08T20:50:21Z"

Still don’t want to wrap the go tool? Well, try -flags to retrieve the LDFLAGS govvv prepares:

$ go build -ldflags="$(govvv -flags)"

Want to use a different package?

You can pass a -pkg argument with the full package name, and govvv will set the build variables in that package instead of main. For example:

# build with govvv
$ govvv build -pkg github.com/myacct/myproj/mypkg

# build with go
$ go build -ldflags="$(govvv -flags -pkg $(go list ./mypkg))"

Want to use a different version?

You can pass a -version argument with the desired version, and govvv will use the specified version instead of obtaining it from the ./VERSION file. For example:

# build with govvv
$ govvv build -version 1.2.3

# build with go
$ go build -ldflags="$(govvv -flags -version 1.2.3)"

Try govvv today

$ go get github.com/ahmetb/govvv

---

govvv is distributed under Apache 2.0 License.

Copyright 2016 Ahmet Alp Balkan

---

govvv's Issues

[announcement] Changing username for the repo

I am planning to change my GitHub username to ahmetb soon. If you already vendored this repo (which you should) this change is not going to break your builds, it may cause issues when you try to update the vendored package.

Leaving this issue open for a while to discuss issues that come up because of the change.

make the logic into a package so others can call it

Would be nicer with a pkg, so i can use this as part of CI.
Still have the main of course for users using it from the command line.

Add support for setting --version from command line

Forcing people to use the ./VERSION file seems to be a bit arbitrary. Especially if pre-existing tooling pipelines don't support it. It would be nice if there was something like a --version option to set this value.

Add support for `GoVersion`

It would be nice if there was support for GoVersion.

Work with spf13/cobra - customise package name

cobra can generate applications quickly.

However, it puts commands in a cmd package instead of main.
This means that govvv can't be used because it requires package main.

Given that govvv sets a few global variables, it should still work even if the package name was not main. The assumption of course, is that a package name of "not main" is intentional.

Therefore, it would be nice if a flag could be specified that changed the package name govvv uses from main to something else, example: -package cmd

'govvv -flags -pkg' not working properly?

I think this is similarly related to #17 and #18.

Anyways, some info on my environment (want to know anything else?):
Go version: 1.12
govvv version: 0.2.0
os/version: ubuntu bionic_18.04-like
🔢

$ govvv list ./cmd
# This outputs correctly, for reference.
github.com/stgarf/paperless-cli/cmd
$ cat ./VERSION
# For ref, this is correct and doesn't have any strange characters.
0.0.1
$ git describe --tags --dirty --always
# For reference.
fba178f

$ govvv -flags -pkg $(govvv list ./cmd) -version $(cat ./VERSION)
# The package is incorrect for the variables...
-X main.BuildDate=2019-03-04T00:34:31Z -X main.GitCommit=fba178f -X main.GitBranch=master -X main.GitState=clean -X main.GitSummary=fba178f -X main.Version=0.0.1

# Maybe bash command substitution was the problem, let's explore... notice I change the version to 0.0.2 also.
$ govvv -flags -pkg github.com/stgarf/paperless-cli/cmd -version 0.0.2
# Package is wrong and version is wrong...
-X main.GitCommit=fba178f -X main.GitBranch=master -X main.GitState=clean -X main.GitSummary=fba178f -X main.Version=0.0.1 -X main.BuildDate=2019-03-04T00:47:53Z

# Again, but 0.0.3 for giggles...
$ govvv -flags -pkg github.com/stgarf/paperless-cli/cmd -version 0.0.3
-X main.GitCommit=fba178f -X main.GitBranch=master -X main.GitState=clean -X main.GitSummary=fba178f -X main.Version=0.0.1 -X main.BuildDate=2019-03-04T00:47:58Z
# Package is wrong and version is wrong...

Am I maybe using the tool incorrectly? I'm able to pass the "proper" -ldflags and the resulting binary works as I'd expect it to...

$ ./build.sh; ./paperless-cli version; rm paperless-cli                                                    [17:48:39]
Building...
Build complete.
paperless-cli v0.1.1 built on 2019-03-04T01:48:57Z from git:68534c2-clean (master) by user@chrx

and the tests are even working correctly...

$ pwd; go test -v . -run TestGetFlags_pkgFlag
/home/user/repos/gocode/src/github.com/ahmetb/govvv
=== RUN   TestGetFlags_pkgFlag
Debugging flags: map[github.com/acct/coolproject/version.BuildDate:2019-03-04T01:54:48Z github.com/acct/coolproject/version.GitBranch:master github.com/acct/coolproject/version.GitCommit:8dbada4 github.com/acct/coolproject/version.GitState:clean github.com/acct/coolproject/version.GitSummary:8dbada4]
--- PASS: TestGetFlags_pkgFlag (0.07s)
PASS
ok  	github.com/ahmetb/govvv	0.072s

(notsure)

failed to collect values: failed to get commit: git: error="exit status 128" stderr=fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories)

I want to use it in docker.

It said this is not a git repository, but I don't need git commit or other informations, just version.

stoped working after upgrade to go1.11

Hi,

govvv worked fine with older go version. But
go version go1.11 windows/amd64 now returns

govvv build .\testGit.go
go tool: fork/exec C:\Go\bin\go.exe: invalid argument

go build .\testGit.go works fine

//test program
package main

import "log"

var GitCommit, GitBranch, GitState, BuildDate, Version string

func main() {

log.Println("Code Status at compile time: ")
log.Println("   Version:   " + Version)
log.Println("   GitCommit: " + GitCommit)
log.Println("   GitBranch: " + GitBranch)
log.Println("   GitState:  " + GitState)
log.Println("   BuildDate: " + BuildDate)

}

If no version provided what about use GitSummary as VERSION?

Please tag 0.3.0

Go modules will, by default, get 0.2.0.

govvv bump?

Hi.
Can you add govvv bump patch, govvv bump minor, govvv bump major commands?
So we can bump patch/minor/major version with govvv.

Feature: option to specify package in which to set variables

Setting the variables in the main package unfortunately means that they're only visible within main. If I want to use them elsewhere (e.g., display version info in a web page built from my httpsrv package), I have to duplicate the variables in another package, and set them when my application starts.

Therefore, I'd like an option to specify the package where I want the variables set. For example:

$ govvv -pkg version -flags
-X github.com/myaccount/myproject/version.GitState=dirty -X github.com/myaccount/myproject/version.GitSummary=f693f40-dirty -X github.com/myaccount/myproject/version.Version=1.7.5 -X github.com/myaccount/myproject/version.BuildDate=2016-10-18T16:33:47Z -X github.com/myaccount/myproject/version.GitCommit=f693f40 -X github.com/myaccount/myproject/version.GitBranch=staging

 

IMHO, this would be the ideal behavior -- being able to pass version as the argument, and having the tool substitute the full package name (which is required for this to work). But I'd also be fine with just passing the full package name (e.g., github.com/myaccount/myproject/version) as the argument.

I can probably work on this and submit a PR if you like.