bug#32919: Golang build cache and content-based staleness in Guix

[Leo Famulari]

On Tue, Oct 02, 2018 at 04:49:20PM -0500, Katherine Cox-Buday wrote:
> We should perhaps begin thinking about switching the Go build system to
> the 1.11 series of releases.

I agree. When Go 1.11 was released, Go 1.9 became unsupported upstream,
so we should stop using it.

The go-build-system as implemented in Guix worked great through Go 1.9.

Go 1.10 changed how the Go compiler chooses whether or not to re-use
compiled Go objects, using a technique they call "content-based
staleness", which is basically a memoized cache, similar to Guix. [0]

For us, the downside of that change is that, when building within Guix
using the tools we have now, the Go compiler never re-uses compiled
objects and instead rebuilds everything, every time. That is, the Go
build cache is never hit. It's inefficient but nothing breaks from what
I've seen.

It would be great if our go-build-system could be updated to work with
the new Go build cache, but in my opinion it's not a blocker. I think we
will have to change it eventually, because they seem to be phasing out
$GOPATH, but we are good for now.

What do you think?

[0]
https://bugs.gnu.org/30579
https://golang.org/doc/go1.10#build

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