README.md

# gvt, the go vendoring tool

`gvt` is a simple Go vendoring tool made for the GO15VENDOREXPERIMENT, based on [gb-vendor](https://github.com/constabulary/gb).

It lets you easily and "idiomatically" include external dependencies in your repository to get reproducible builds.

  * No need to change how you build your project!  
    You run `gvt fetch` when you would run `go get`. `gvt` downloads packages to `./vendor/...`. With `GO15VENDOREXPERIMENT=1` the stock Go compiler will find and use those dependencies (without import path or GOPATH changes).

  * No need to manually chase, copy or cleanup dependencies!  
    `gvt` works recursively as you would expect, and lets you update vendored dependencies. It also writes a manifest to `./vendor/manifest`. Finally, it strips the VCS metadata so that you can commit the vendored source cleanly.

  * No need for your users and occasional contributors to install or even know about gvt!  
    Packages whose dependencies are vendored with `gvt` are `go build`-able and `go get`-able out of the box by Go 1.5 with `GO15VENDOREXPERIMENT=1` set.

Note that projects must live within the GOPATH tree in order to be go buildable with the GO15VENDOREXPERIMENT flag.


## Installation

```
GO15VENDOREXPERIMENT=1 go get -u github.com/FiloSottile/gvt
```

## Usage

You know how to use `go get`? That's how you use `gvt fetch`.

```
$ gvt fetch github.com/fatih/color
2015/09/05 02:38:06 fetching recursive dependency github.com/mattn/go-isatty
2015/09/05 02:38:07 fetching recursive dependency github.com/shiena/ansicolor

$ tree -d
.
└── vendor
    └── github.com
        ├── fatih
        │   └── color
        ├── mattn
        │   └── go-isatty
        └── shiena
            └── ansicolor
                └── ansicolor

9 directories

$ cat > main.go
package main
import "github.com/fatih/color"
func main() {
    color.Red("Hello, world!")
}

$ export GO15VENDOREXPERIMENT=1
$ go build .
$ ./hello
Hello, world!

$ git add main.go vendor/ && git commit

```

Full usage on [GoDoc ![GoDoc](https://godoc.org/github.com/FiloSottile/gvt?status.svg)](http://godoc.org/github.com/FiloSottile/gvt)

## Alternative: not checking in vendored source

Some developers prefer not to check in the source of the vendored dependencies. In that case you can add lines like these to e.g. your `.gitignore`

    vendor/**
    !vendor/manifest

When you check out the source again, you can then run `gvt restore` to fetch all the dependencies at the revisions specified in the `vendor/manifest` file.

Please consider that this approach has the following consequences:

  * the package consumer will need gvt to fetch the dependencies
  * the dependencies will need to remain available from the source repositories: if the original repository goes down or rewrites history, build reproducibility is lost
  * `go get` won't work on your package

## Troubleshooting

### `error: tag 'fetch' not found.`

This kind of errors happens because you have an alias for `gvt` pointing to `git verify-tag`.

Run this, or add it to your `~/.bashrc` / `~/.zshrc`:

```
unalias gvt
```

### `go build` can't find the vendored package

Make sure you set `GO15VENDOREXPERIMENT=1`.

Also note that GO15VENDOREXPERIMENT does not apply when outside the GOPATH tree. That is, your project must be somewhere in a subfolder of `$GOPATH`.

## Why

There are many Go vendoring tools, but they all have some subset of the following problems

   * no GO15VENDOREXPERIMENT support: old tools are based on import path rewriting or GOPATH overrides
   * requirement to run on clients: some require the user to install the tool and run it after cloning, which breaks `go get`
   * **no real fetching support**: tools like Godep just copy packages from your GOPATH, instead of pulling it from the Internet, contaminating your system environment; gvt will never touch your system GOPATH
   * prominent metadata files: there's no need for the manifest to be in your repository root, or in its own empty folder, or to be manually edited
   * complex feature set: many are project management tools with included vendoring features
   * different build stack: gb-vendor is awesome but it requires you to build your project with gb