x/gools/gopls: document settings for working on source distribution
Gopls needs to use the right go command to work properly on a source
distribution. One way of getting this done is by setting go.alternateTools.
Fixes golang/go#38603
Change-Id: Ie379b372c48f651a22c73d93f8608194c5e3a417
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/tools/+/253297
Run-TryBot: Peter Weinberger <pjw@google.com>
TryBot-Result: Gobot Gobot <gobot@golang.org>
Reviewed-by: Rebecca Stambler <rstambler@golang.org>
diff --git a/gopls/doc/user.md b/gopls/doc/user.md
index db10c2d..4f2f06f 100644
--- a/gopls/doc/user.md
+++ b/gopls/doc/user.md
@@ -130,6 +130,20 @@
| `^` | `^printf` | exact prefix |
| `$` | `printf$` | exact suffix |
+### Working on the Go source distribution
+
+If you are working on the [Go project](https://go.googlesource.com/go) itself, your `go` command will have to correspond to the version of the source you are working on. That is, if you have downloaded the code to `$HOME/go`, your `go` command should be the `$HOME/go/bin/go` executable that you built with `make.bash` or equivalent.
+
+You can achieve this by adding the right version of `go` to your `PATH` (`export PATH=$HOME/go/bin:$PATH` on Unix systems) or by configuring your editor. In VS Code, you can use the `go.alternateTools` setting to point to the correct version of `go`:
+
+```json5
+{
+
+ "go.alternateTools": {
+ "go": "$HOME/bin/go"
+ }
+}
+```
## Command line support
