cmd/go: git revision information stamping on CentOS 7 fails with Go 1.18rc1: error obtaining VCS status: exit status 128

[polarina]

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

$ go version
go version go1.18rc1 linux/amd64

$ cat /etc/os-release 
NAME="CentOS Linux"
VERSION="7 (Core)"
ID="centos"
ID_LIKE="rhel fedora"
VERSION_ID="7"
PRETTY_NAME="CentOS Linux 7 (Core)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;31"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:centos:centos:7"
HOME_URL="https://www.centos.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.centos.org/"

CENTOS_MANTISBT_PROJECT="CentOS-7"
CENTOS_MANTISBT_PROJECT_VERSION="7"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="centos"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION="7"

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

This issue affects Go 1.18 only. Go 1.17 is unaffected.

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (go env)?

go env Output

$ go env
GO111MODULE=""
GOARCH="amd64"
GOBIN=""
GOCACHE="/home/ava-gabriel/.cache/go-build"
GOENV="/home/ava-gabriel/.config/go/env"
GOEXE=""
GOEXPERIMENT=""
GOFLAGS=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="linux"
GOINSECURE=""
GOMODCACHE="/home/ava-gabriel/go/pkg/mod"
GONOPROXY=""
GONOSUMDB=""
GOOS="linux"
GOPATH="/home/ava-gabriel/go"
GOPRIVATE=""
GOPROXY="https://proxy.golang.org,direct"
GOROOT="/usr/local/go"
GOSUMDB="sum.golang.org"
GOTMPDIR=""
GOTOOLDIR="/usr/local/go/pkg/tool/linux_amd64"
GOVCS=""
GOVERSION="go1.18rc1"
GCCGO="gccgo"
GOAMD64="v1"
AR="ar"
CC="gcc"
CXX="g++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
GOMOD="/dev/null"
GOWORK=""
CGO_CFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_CPPFLAGS=""
CGO_CXXFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_FFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_LDFLAGS="-g -O2"
PKG_CONFIG="pkg-config"
GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/tmp/go-build3218995411=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches"

What did you do?

[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 ~]$ mkdir hello
[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 ~]$ cd hello
[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 hello]$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/ava-gabriel/hello/.git/
[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 hello]$ echo 'package main' > main.go
[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 hello]$ go mod init example.com/hello
go: creating new go.mod: module example.com/hello
go: to add module requirements and sums:
	go mod tidy
[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 hello]$ git add .
[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 hello]$ git commit -m 'initial commit'
[master (root-commit) 2d02bea] initial commit
 2 files changed, 4 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 go.mod
 create mode 100644 main.go
[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 hello]$ go build ./...
error obtaining VCS status: exit status 128
	Use -buildvcs=false to disable VCS stamping.

What did you expect to see?

I expected go build to complain about missing main, but that's only due to the triviality of the reproduction steps.

[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 hello]$ go build ./...
# example.com/hello
runtime.main_main·f: function main is undeclared in the main package

What did you see instead?

[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 hello]$ go build ./...
error obtaining VCS status: exit status 128
	Use -buildvcs=false to disable VCS stamping.

Probable cause

The command line argument --no-show-signature is not supported by Git on CentOS 7:

[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 hello]$ go build -x ./...
WORK=/tmp/go-build592561444
cd /home/ava-gabriel/hello
git status --porcelain
cd /home/ava-gabriel/hello
git show -s --no-show-signature --format=%H:%ct
error obtaining VCS status: exit status 128
	Use -buildvcs=false to disable VCS stamping.
[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 hello]$ git show -s --no-show-signature --format=%H:%ct
fatal: unrecognized argument: --no-show-signature
[ava-gabriel@proclidev01 hello]$ git --version
git version 1.8.3.1

[dmitshur]

Thanks for reporting.

Can you please also include output from git --version? You've just edited this information in, thanks!

Proposal #26746 and issue #38373 are relevant here.

CC @bcmills, @matloob.

[dmitshur]

Git v1.8.3.1 is quite old, released in 2013. Is this representative of the latest version of git available on CentOS 7, or is a one-off instance where this machine just needs to be updated?

[polarina]

Is this representative of the latest version of git available on CentOS 7, or is a one-off instance where this machine just needs to be updated?

This is the latest version of Git available in CentOS 7's official repositories.

[bcmills]

Given that we still don't have a CentOS 7 builder (#29114 has been open without activity since Dec. 2018), I don't have the ability to easily test a fix for this issue. If you'd like to contribute a fix (with a regression test in cmd/go/testdata/script for if/when we do get a builder) I'd be happy to review it.

[bcmills]

As a workaround in the interim, note that you should be able to set -buildvcs=false to explicitly bypass VCS stamping. (Please file a separate issue if you find that doesn't work.)

[ooxi]

@bcmills for your information, this also occurs on git 2.7.4 shipped with Ubuntu 16.04

Calling go build -v reveals

# cd /home/user/project; git show -s --no-show-signature --format=%H:%ct
fatal: unrecognized argument: --no-show-signature

It seems like this option was not introduced until git 2.10. I'm compiling on Ubuntu 16.04 to ensure the generated binaries will work on newer Ubuntu versions.

I don't quite get why go calls an external vcs anyhow instead of bundling this capability.

Edit: I found commit 90066b which fixes a similar issue with go log