weird installation instructions about gofumpt

[mvdan]

:) As of Go 1.11 and 1.12, it's the only way to reliably install the tool in module mode without modifying the current go.mod. If golang/go#30515 was done, we could replace that entire line with something like go get -global mvdan.cc/gofumpt.

I understand I could suggest go get mvdan.cc/gofumpt and add a warning about running this outside a module, but I think that will still confuse some users who aren't used to modules. The longer line can be copy-pasted in all scenarios, and the expert Go users can do their own thing anyway.

[josharian]

Yuck. Seems like we definitely need something like golang/go#30515. What I ended up doing was cloning and then running go install.

I'm not an expert Go user (when it comes to modules). I wonder whether git clone ...; cd gofumpt; go install would be more comprehensible to most folks on first pass?

[mvdan]

Yes, a clone is the other option. The disadvantage being that it gets @master, not @latest (which is different if there are tagged releases), and it might not use module mode if $PWD happens to be inside $GOPATH.

And of course, it also pollutes $PWD. I think polluting /tmp or whichever other temporary directory is a bit less harmful.

Either way it's going to be multiple commands and ugly; this is just one way that I've found does what I want, works for all projects, and is usable on all Go releases since 1.11. So I'll probably be using it for a while.

[rodrigc]

@mvdan take a look at golang/go#30515 (comment) and see if that approach works for you. That is one suggestion that is being discussed.

[mvdan]

Yes, I am aware of that thread; I started it. That's not the right approach I'm afraid, as someone already pointed out there.