Accessing local packages within a go module (go 1.11)

Question

I'm trying out Go's new modules system and am having trouble accessing local packages. The following project is in a folder on my desktop outside my gopath.

My project structure looks like:

/
  - /platform
      - platform.go
  - main.go
  - go.mod

---

// platform.go
package platform

import "fmt"

func Print() {
    fmt.Println("Hi")
}

---

// main.go
package main

import "platform"

func main() {
    platform.Print()
}

go build main.go tells me

cannot find module for path platform

Answer 1

Let me define this first modules are collections of packages. In Go 11, I use go modules like the following:

If both packages are in the same project, you could just do the following: In go.mod:

module github.com/userName/moduleName

and inside your main.go

import "github.com/userName/moduleName/platform"

However, if they are separate modules, i.e different physical paths and you still want to import local packages without publishing this remotely to github for example, you could achieve this by using replace directive.

Given the module name github.com/otherModule and platform, as you've called it, is the only package inside there. In your main module's go.mod add the following lines:

module github.com/userName/mainModule

require "github.com/userName/otherModule" v0.0.0
replace "github.com/userName/otherModule" v0.0.0 => "local physical path to the otherModule"

Note: The path should point to the root directory of the module, and can be absolute or relative.

Inside main.go, to import a specific package like platform from otherModule:

import "github.com/userName/otherModule/platform"

Here's a gentle introduction to Golang Modules

Answer 2

I would strongly suggest you to use go toolchain which takes care of these issues out of the box. Visual Studio Code with vscode-go plugin is really useful.

Problem here is that Go requires relative paths with respect to your $GOPATH/src or module in import statement. Depending on where you are in your GOPATH, import path should include that as well. In this case, import statement must include go module path in go.mod

GOPATH

Assume your project resides here:

$GOPATH/src/github.com/myuser/myproject

Your import path should be:

import "github.com/myuser/myproject/platform"

VGO

Assume your go.mod file is:

module example.com/myuser/myproject

Your import path should be:

import "example.com/myuser/myproject/platform"

Answer 3

As someone new to go I didn't immediately understand the accepted answer – which is great, by the way. Here's a shorter answer for those very new people!

In go modules/packages are expressed as urls that you import in your code:

import your.org/internal/fancy_module

But wait! My code isn't at a url, what's happening??

This is the cleverness of go. You pretend there's a url even when there isn't one. Because:

1. This makes including easier as no matter where your file is located the import uses the same url (the code stays the same even if the files move!)
2. You can have packages that having naming conflicts. So google.com/go-api/user doesn't conflict with the definitions at your.org/internal/user
3. Someday you might publish a url on GitHub and all the code will just work

That's all great Evan, but how do I import a relative path?

Good question! You can import by changing your go.mod file to have this line:

module fancy_module

go 1.16

replace your.org/fancy_module => ../path/to/fancy_module

Answer 4

Given the Golang Project structure

/
  - /platform
      - platform.go
  - main.go
  - go.mod

To access the methods or structs...etc (which are public) from local packages of /platform is simple, shown below

// main.go package main

import (
p "./platform"
)

func main() {
    p.Print()
}

this should work