如何全局安装golang工具，然后在不同的GOPATH中的多个项目中使用它们？

Question

Most of the golang tools like golint, gopkgs etc are installed like libraries with go get for instance, go get -v github.com/golang/lint/golint or go get -v github.com/tpng/gopkgs. I wonder why these are not just binaries that run through the source code, like go fmt, for example?

Since I work on multiple Go projects at the same time, I prefer having different GOPATH for different projects and so I am having to install these tools into every single project so that I can lint or have auto completions.

Am I doing something wrong or is there a way to install these tools globally and then just use them in multiple projects? How do people handling multiple projects manage this?

EDIT:

I am not asking about vendoring of libraries or about projects using different versions of Go at the same time. My question is about having to install tools like lint and gopkgs into every GOPATH, why they were designed to be treated like libraries instead of being provided as a global binary like go fmt which then could've been used in multiple projects, just like we use go fmt

Answer 1

so I am having to install these tools into every single project so that I can lint or have auto completions.

No you don't: see how Visual Studio Code does it through its Microsoft vscode-go plugin (since its 0.6.53 version, January 2017).

New setting go.toolsGopath, for providing an alternate location to install all the Go tools that the extension depends on, if you don't want them cluttering your GOPATH.
See PR 351 and PR 737

The tools installed in that one common `` folder are:

'gocode': 'github.com/nsf/gocode',
'gopkgs': 'github.com/tpng/gopkgs',
'go-outline': 'github.com/ramya-rao-a/go-outline',
'go-symbols': 'github.com/acroca/go-symbols',
'guru': 'golang.org/x/tools/cmd/guru',
'gorename': 'golang.org/x/tools/cmd/gorename',
'gomodifytags': 'github.com/fatih/gomodifytags',
'impl': 'github.com/josharian/impl'

(and a few others, around godoc, goimports or goreturns, dlv, ...),

That means your GOPATH is composed of:

• your project-specific workspace folder
• a global go.toolsGopath workspace folder dedicated to tools used by all projects.
  The tools are installed/updated in the bin/ subfolder of that latter workspace.

You can do that manually too (without Visual Studio Code): simply set GOPATH to that global tools folder whenever you want to install/update the tools.

Then reset GOPATH to my/project/dedicated/workspace;/tools/workspace, and add both bin/ subfolders to your $PATH/%PATH%.

The OP Nithin adds in the comments:

these tools can be compiled to binaries and if those binaries are available in $PATH, most editors, as far as I tested (based on your post), both vscode and atom (go-plus) will work and wont go get them again.

It is easier to update if they are treated like libraries. (I mean go get)