cmd/go: spurious error message when external linking a pure Go program

[cherrymui]

What version of Go are you using (go version)?

tip (3235f7c)

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

Yes, happens with Go 1.11, 1.12, and tip, but not with Go 1.10.

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (go env)?

linux/amd64

What did you do?

$ mkdir -p /tmp/src/hello
$ cat >hello.go
package main
func main() { println("hello") }
$ GO111MODULE=off GOPATH=/tmp go build -ldflags=-linkmode=external
# hello
loadinternal: cannot find runtime/cgo
$ echo $?
0
$ ./hello
hello

When using external linking for a pure Go program, the linker prints loadinternal: cannot find runtime/cgo message. The linking actually succeeded, and the generated binary works fine.

What did you expect to see?

No error message, like with Go 1.10.

$ GOPATH=/tmp go1.10 build -ldflags=-linkmode=external 
$ ./hello 
hello

What did you see instead?

Spurious loadinternal: cannot find runtime/cgo error message.

[cherrymui]

This also happens in module mode:

$ go mod init hello
go: creating new go.mod: module hello
$ GO111MODULE=on go build -ldflags=-linkmode=external 
# hello
loadinternal: cannot find runtime/cgo

But it does not happen if the file name (hello.go) is given explicitly.

$ go build -ldflags=-linkmode=external hello.go 
$

[julieqiu]

/cc @jayconrod @bcmills

[bcmills]

I can reproduce the failure. I'm bisecting it now to try to get some idea of how it broke.

[bcmills]

git bisect points to CL 129059 (CC @rsc @alandonovan).

[bcmills]

This is a result of the -ldflags=-linkmode=external flag now (correctly) being passed when compiling the hello package, which reveals a typestate bug in load.PackagesAndErrors.

The decision in the LinkerDeps function about whether to add the runtime/cgo dependency is based on whether the -ldflags=-linkmode=external flag is set for the package, which itself depends on whether CmdlinePkg flag is set:

go/src/cmd/go/internal/load/flag.go

Line 43 in 19966e9

match := func(p *Package) bool { return p.Internal.CmdlinePkg || p.Internal.CmdlineFiles } // default predicate with no pattern

That field is set after the call to loadImport:

go/src/cmd/go/internal/load/pkg.go

Lines 1962 to 1964 in 19966e9

	p := loadImport(pre, pkg, base.Cwd, nil, &stk, nil, 0)
	p.Match = append(p.Match, m.Pattern)
	p.Internal.CmdlinePkg = true

However, by that point loadImport has already called load on the package:

go/src/cmd/go/internal/load/pkg.go

Line 511 in 19966e9

p.load(stk, bp, err)

...and load is what's supposed to figure out the implicit linker dependencies:

go/src/cmd/go/internal/load/pkg.go

Line 1534 in 19966e9

for _, dep := range LinkerDeps(p) {

[rsc]

@cherrymui, unless this is important for you for some reason, we'd like to postpone the fix to Go 1.14. It's subtle code.

/cc @bcmills

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/176217 mentions this issue: cmd/go/internal/work: set CmdlinePkg in loadImport instead of after

[cherrymui]

@cherrymui, unless this is important for you for some reason, we'd like to postpone the fix to Go 1.14. It's subtle code.

Sure, it is fine to postpone.