---
name: "go-remote"
section: "7"
platform: "linux"
package: "gccgo-go"
version: "2:1.24~2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/go-remote"
---

# go-remote(7)

tool for managing Go source code

## NAME

go - tool for managing Go source code

## DESCRIPTION

An import path (see **go-importpath**(1)) denotes a package stored in the local file system.  Certain import paths also describe how to obtain the source code for the package using a revision control system.

A few common code hosting sites have special syntax:

- **BitBucket (Mercurial)**

  ```
  import "bitbucket.org/user/project"
  import "bitbucket.org/user/project/sub/directory"
  ```

- **GitHub (Git)**

  ```
  import "github.com/user/project"
  import "github.com/user/project/sub/directory"
  ```

- **Google Code Project Hosting (Git, Mercurial, Subversion)**

  ```
  import "code.google.com/p/project"
  import "code.google.com/p/project/sub/directory"
  ```

  ```
  import "code.google.com/p/project.subrepository"
  import "code.google.com/p/project.subrepository/sub/directory"
  ```

- **Launchpad (Bazaar)**

  ```
  import "launchpad.net/project"
  import "launchpad.net/project/series"
  import "launchpad.net/project/series/sub/directory"
  ```

  ```
  import "launchpad.net/~user/project/branch"
  import "launchpad.net/~user/project/branch/sub/directory"
  ```

For code hosted on other servers, import paths may either be qualified with the version control type, or the go tool can dynamically fetch the import path over https/http and discover where the code resides from a \<meta\> tag in the HTML.

To declare the code location, an import path of the form

```
    repository.vcs/path
```

specifies the given repository, with or without the .vcs suffix, using the named version control system, and then the path inside that repository.  The supported version control systems are:

- **Bazaar**

   .bzr

- **Git**

   .git

- **Mercurial**

   .hg

- **Subversion**

   .svn

For example,

```
    import "example.org/user/foo.hg"
```

denotes the root directory of the Mercurial repository at example.org/user/foo or foo.hg, and

```
    import "example.org/repo.git/foo/bar"
```

denotes the foo/bar directory of the Git repository at example.com/repo or repo.git.

When a version control system supports multiple protocols, each is tried in turn when downloading.  For example, a Git download tries git://, then https://, then http://.

If the import path is not a known code hosting site and also lacks a version control qualifier, the go tool attempts to fetch the import over https/http and looks for a \<meta\> tag in the document's HTML \<head\>.

The meta tag has the form:

```
    <meta name="go-import" content="import-prefix vcs repo-root">
```

The import-prefix is the import path corresponding to the repository root. It must be a prefix or an exact match of the package being fetched with "go get". If it's not an exact match, another http request is made at the prefix to verify the \<meta\> tags match.

The vcs is one of "git", "hg", "svn", etc,

The repo-root is the root of the version control system containing a scheme and not containing a .vcs qualifier.

For example,

```
    import "example.org/pkg/foo"
```

will result in the following request(s):

```
    https://example.org/pkg/foo?go-get=1 (preferred)
    http://example.org/pkg/foo?go-get=1  (fallback)
```

If that page contains the meta tag

```
    <meta name="go-import" content="example.org git https://code.org/r/p/exproj">
```

the go tool will verify that https://example.org/?go-get=1 contains the same meta tag and then git clone https://code.org/r/p/exproj into GOPATH/src/example.org.

New downloaded packages are written to the first directory listed in the GOPATH environment variable (see **go-path**(1)).

The go command attempts to download the version of the package appropriate for the Go release being used. See [**go-install**(1)](/go-install/1.md) for more.

## AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Michael Stapelberg \<stapelberg@debian.org\>, for the Debian project (and may be used by others).