Proposal: go version update

[sourav977]

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

$ go version
go version go1.11.5 windows/amd64

go env Output

$ go env
set GOARCH=amd64
set GOBIN=
set GOCACHE=C:\Users\Spatnaik\AppData\Local\go-build
set GOEXE=.exe
set GOFLAGS=
set GOHOSTARCH=amd64
set GOHOSTOS=windows
set GOOS=windows
set GOPATH=D:\workspace
set GOPROXY=
set GORACE=
set GOROOT=D:\Go\go
set GOTMPDIR=
set GOTOOLDIR=D:\Go\go\pkg\tool\windows_amd64
set GCCGO=gccgo
set CC=gcc
set CXX=g++
set CGO_ENABLED=1
set GOMOD=
set CGO_CFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_CPPFLAGS=
set CGO_CXXFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_FFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_LDFLAGS=-g -O2
set PKG_CONFIG=pkg-config
set GOGCCFLAGS=-m64 -mthreads -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=C:\Users\Spatnaik\AppData\Local\Temp\go-build047409646=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches

What did you do?

I installed Golang on my Windows machine in July 2018 versioned v1.10.3 and started working on my Go Project. As i remember, after that i have never updated golang to the upcoming latest versions. As we can find there are number of bug fixes, new concepts etc. are introduced in every new golang patches,minor,major versions , a developer may only able to see this in golang release documents if and only if he/she continuously check this updates or aware of.

Currently the procedure to use new feathers that are introduced in newer versions is first uninstall older go version and then install the new one. I find this is a lot of work to do in the system. What if in the scenario where in the server/workstation an older version of golang was installed a long time ago but we deployed our program that is completely written in newer version of golang? It will show "Undefined .." right !? Here again we have to do uninstall, then install, set env variables etc. . There are many cases i found where we will encounter this golang version issue.

What did you expect to see?

I Propose to add go version update sub command in go version command.

This will save and reduce a lot of time and efforts. The command should work across all available platforms. The command should perform the golang version update task as we generally used to update apps in linux platforms without affecting the settings.

Example:

in a machine, currently installed go version:
$ go version
go version go1.10.3

now, i want to update the golang version to the latest available golang version by giving a command and flag
$ go version -u update
(output should be): golang updated to latest version go1.x.y

now if i check:
$ go version
go version go1.x.y

A hassle free update to a newer golang version can be achieved by this.

What did you see instead?

uninstall older version golang, install the latest :(

[agnivade]

Duplicate of #27700. Also see #23381

[sourav977]

thanks for the reference.