A module is a collection of packages that are released, versioned, and distributed together. A module is identified by a module path, which is declared in a go.mod file, together with information about the module's dependencies. The module root directory is the directory that contains the go.mod file. The main module is the module containing the directory where the go command is invoked.
Each package within a module is a collection of source files in the same directory that are compiled together. A package path is the module path joined with the subdirectory containing the package (relative to the module root). For example, the module "golang.org/x/net" contains a package in the directory "html". That package's path is "golang.org/x/net/html".
A version identifies an immutable snapshot of a module, which may be either a release or a pre-release. Each version starts with the letter v, followed by a semantic version. See Semantic Versioning 2.0.0 for details on how versions are formatted, interpreted, and compared.
To summarize, a semantic version consists of three non-negative integers (the major, minor, and patch versions, from left to right) separated by dots. The patch version may be followed by an optional pre-release string starting with a hyphen. The pre-release string or patch version may be followed by a build metadata string starting with a plus. For example, v0.0.0, v1.12.134, v8.0.5-pre, and v2.0.9+meta are valid versions.
Each part of a version indicates whether the version is stable and whether it is compatible with previous versions.
v1.2.3-pre comes before v1.2.3.go.mod files. The suffix +incompatible denotes a version released before migrating to modules version major version 2 or later (see Compatibility with non-module repositories.A version is considered unstable if its major version is 0 or it has a pre-release suffix. Unstable versions are not subject to compatibility requirements. For example, v0.2.0 may not be compatible with v0.1.0, and v1.5.0-beta may not be compatible with v1.5.0.
Go may access modules in version control systems using tags, branches, or revisions that don‘t follow these conventions. However, within the main module, the go command will automatically convert revision names that don’t follow this standard into canonical versions. The go command will also remove build metadata suffixes (except for +incompatible) as part of this process. This may result in a pseudo-version, a pre-release version that encodes a revision identifier (such as a Git commit hash) and a timestamp from a version control system. For example, the command go get -d golang.org/x/net@daa7c041 will convert the commit hash daa7c041 into the pseudo-version v0.0.0-20191109021931-daa7c04131f5. Canonical versions are required outside the main module, and the go command will report an error if a non-canonical version like master appears in a go.mod file.
Starting with major version 2, module paths must have a major version suffix like /v2 that matches the major version. For example, if a module has the path example.com/mod at v1.0.0, it must have the path example.com/mod/v2 at version v2.0.0.
Major version suffixes implement the import compatibility rule:
If an old package and a new package have the same import path, the new package must be backwards compatible with the old package.
By definition, packages in a new major version of a module are not backwards compatible with the corresponding packages in the previous major version. Consequently, starting with v2, packages need new import paths. This is accomplished by adding a major version suffix to the module path. Since the module path is a prefix of the import path for each package within the module, adding the major version suffix to the module path provides a distinct import path for each incompatible version.
Major version suffixes are not allowed at major versions v0 or v1. There is no need to change the module path between v0 and v1 because v0 versions are unstable and have no compatibility guarantee. Additionally, for most modules, v1 is backwards compatible with the last v0 version; a v1 version acts as a commitment to compatibility, rather than an indication of incompatible changes compared with v0.
As a special case, modules paths starting with gopkg.in/ must always have a major version suffix, even at v0 and v1. The suffix must start with a dot rather than a slash (for example, gopkg.in/yaml.v2).
Major version suffixes let multiple major versions of a module coexist in the same build. This may be necessary due to a diamond dependency problem. Ordinarily, if a module is required at two different versions by transitive dependencies, the higher version will be used. However, if the two versions are incompatible, neither version will satisfy all clients. Since incompatible versions must have different major version numbers, they must also have different module paths due to major version suffixes. This resolves the conflict: modules with distinct suffixes are treated as separate modules, and their packages—even packages in same subdirectory relative to their module roots—are distinct.
Many Go projects released versions at v2 or higher without using a major version suffix before migrating to modules (perhaps before modules were even introduced). These versions are annotated with a +incompatible build tag (for example, v2.0.0+incompatible). See Compatibility with non-module repositories for more information.
go.mod filesgo.mod file formatgo mod downloadgo mod verifygo mod editgo clean -modcache build list: The list of module versions that will be used for a build command such as go build, go list, or go test. The build list is determined from the main module's go.mod file and go.mod files in transitively required modules using minimal version selection. The build list contains versions for all modules in the module graph, not just those relevant to a specific command.
go.mod file: The file that defines a module's path, requirements, and other metadata. Appears in the module's root directory. See the section on go.mod files.
import path: A string used to import a package in a Go source file. Synonymous with package path.
main module: The module in which the go command is invoked.
major version: The first number in a semantic version (1 in v1.2.3). In a release with incompatible changes, the major version must be incremented, and the minor and patch versions must be set to 0. Semantic versions with major version 0 are considered unstable.
major version suffix: A module path suffix that matches the major version number. For example, /v2 in example.com/mod/v2. Major version suffixes are required at v2.0.0 and later and are not allowed at earlier versions. See the section on Major version suffixes.
minimal version selection (MVS): The algorithm used to determine the versions of all modules that will be used in a build. See the section on Minimal version selection for details.
minor version: The second number in a semantic version (2 in v1.2.3). In a release with new, backwards compatible functionality, the minor version must be incremented, and the patch version must be set to 0.
module: A collection of packages that are released, versioned, and distributed together.
module graph: The directed graph of module requirements, rooted at the main module. Each vertex in the graph is a module; each edge is a version from a require statement in a go.mod file (subject to replace and exclude statements in the main module's go.mod file.
module path: A path that identifies a module and acts as a prefix for package import paths within the module. For example, "golang.org/x/net".
module root directory: The directory that contains the go.mod file that defines a module.
package: A collection of source files in the same directory that are compiled together. See the Packages section in the Go Language Specification.
package path: The path that uniquely identifies a package. A package path is a module path joined with a subdirectory within the module. For example "golang.org/x/net/html" is the package path for the package in the module "golang.org/x/net" in the "html" subdirectory. Synonym of import path.
patch version: The third number in a semantic version (3 in v1.2.3). In a release with no changes to the module's public interface, the patch version must be incremented.
pre-release version: A version with a dash followed by a series of dot-separated identifiers immediately following the patch version, for example, v1.2.3-beta4. Pre-release versions are considered unstable and are not assumed to be compatible with other versions. A pre-release version sorts before the corresponding release version: v1.2.3-pre comes before v1.2.3. See also release version.
pseudo-version: A version that encodes a revision identifier (such as a Git commit hash) and a timestamp from a version control system. For example, v0.0.0-20191109021931-daa7c04131f5. Used for compatibility with non-module repositories and in other situations when a tagged version is not available.
release version: A version without a pre-release suffix. For example, v1.2.3, not v1.2.3-pre. See also pre-release version.
version: An identifier for an immutable snapshot of a module, written as the letter v followed by a semantic version. See the section on Versions.