Gitlab Subgroup + go get

2023-10-06 · gitlab, go, golang, go get, go mod, git

Given:

gitlab, most likely deployed inside an internal network;
“perfectionism” that demands everything be filed neatly into folders, or a directive from above;
an internal Go package that needs to be installed as a dependency.

Suppose your dependency lives at:

https://gitlab.your-company.tld/project-group/lib-group/lib

Unfortunately, you can’t install it just by passing the package name. There are two paths forward:

append .git to the repository name;
use the replace directive in go.mod.

The first option is the simplest, but I think most would agree it’s pretty unappealing.

The second option, using replace, would look like this for the example above:

module ...

go 1.XX

require (
        ...
        gitlab.your-company.tld/project-group/lib-group/lib vTAG
        ...
)

replace gitlab.your-company.tld/project-group/lib-group/lib => gitlab.your-company.tld/project-group/lib-group/lib.git v<TAG>

You may also need a url rewrite in ~/.gitconfig, but it’s better to confirm that with whoever set up your gitlab. In the overwhelming majority of cases it’ll look something like this:

[url "ssh://git@gitlab.your-company.tld:"]
        insteadOf = https://gitlab.your-company.tld