cmd/go: get ignores GOARCH environment variable

[dh1tw]

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

$ go version
go version go1.13.4 linux/amd64

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

Yes

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

$ go env

GO111MODULE=""
GOARCH="386"
GOBIN=""
GOCACHE="/root/.cache/go-build"
GOENV="/root/.config/go/env"
GOEXE=".exe"
GOFLAGS=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="linux"
GONOPROXY=""
GONOSUMDB=""
GOOS="windows"
GOPATH="/go"
GOPRIVATE=""
GOPROXY="https://proxy.golang.org,direct"
GOROOT="/usr/local/go"
GOSUMDB="sum.golang.org"
GOTMPDIR=""
GOTOOLDIR="/usr/local/go/pkg/tool/linux_amd64"
GCCGO="gccgo"
GO386="sse2"
AR="ar"
CC="i686-w64-mingw32-gcc"
CXX="i686-w64-mingw32-g++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
GOMOD="/usr/src/myapp/go.mod"
CGO_CFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_CPPFLAGS=""
CGO_CXXFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_FFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_LDFLAGS="-g -O2"
PKG_CONFIG="pkg-config"
GOGCCFLAGS="-m32 -mthreads -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/tmp/go-build660781913=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches"

What did you do?

I want to cross compile a program to GOOS=windows and GOARCH=386. These variables have already been set in the environment (see above). However, I want to install some tools (code generators) before actually (cross) compiling.

Since the HostOS and HostARCH differ, I inline GOOSand GOARCH before the actual go get:

$ GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go get github.com/gogo/protobuf/protoc-gen-gofast

What did you expect to see?

I expect that by specifying GOOS and GOARCH inline with the go get command, that the program (in this case protoc-gen-gofast) is compiled for linux amd64.

What did you see instead?

The inline GOARCH environment variable is ingnored. Instead a binary is produced for linux_386.

[toothrot]

@dh1tw I believe that when you are specifying GOARCH, go get will install the compiled binary to a subdirectory of $GOPATH/bin. In this case, I believe it would be named $GOPATH/bin/linux_amd64/protoc-gen-gofast.

For example, on my amd64 linux install, if I specify a GOARCH of 386:

$ GOARCH=386 go get github.com/gogo/protobuf/protoc-gen-gofast
$ file $GOPATH/bin/linux_386/protoc-gen-gofast 
go/1.13.3/bin/linux_386/protoc-gen-gofast: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, Go BuildID=RPEyDh1sv4tnwvNOxSHp/EehTLUa5pI1qu2yMin51/sLznK566rlSWYqmCDwTM/IgTIQ-IUDCYV5GkUCGRU, not stripped

Can you check $GOPATH/bin/ for me and see if that is the case?

[dh1tw]

Hi @toothrot,

The problem is actually easy to reproduce. For example, let's use a clean golang container:

$ docker run -it golang:1.13-buster /bin/bash

Within the container, we execute:

$ export GOARCH=386
$ GOOS=linux GOOARCH=amd64 go get github.com/gogo/protobuf/protoc-gen-gofast
$ ls -al /go/bin
linux_386
$ ls -al /go/bin/linux_386
protoc-gen-gofast
$ file /go/bin/linux_386/protoc-gen-gofast
/go/bin/linux_386/protoc-gen-gofast: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, Go BuildID=WMKXHIKIYum37lDtIAnS/TsmmTc2G8ppJZvlNqQea/RbWhcsXqhRnKMWQcf3DW/UXNXxoQYDBTuNAoKMvWp, not stripped

Despite explicitly specifying GOARCH=amd64 inline with the go get command, GOARCH gets ignored and a binary for 386 gets generated (which was set as an environment variable earlier).
Same problem happens with go build.

[toothrot]

@dh1tw In your example here, GOARCH is mistakenly spelled as GOOARCH. Can you verify that is not the issue?

[dh1tw]

Indeed, misspelling GOARCH was the problem. Embarrassing... I thought those kinds of things wouldn't happen to me anymore 😅