cmd/go: spurious error message when external linking a pure Go program

[cherrymui]

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

tip (3235f7c)

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

Yes, happens with Go 1.11, 1.12, and tip, but not with Go 1.10.

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

linux/amd64

What did you do?

$ mkdir -p /tmp/src/hello
$ cat >hello.go
package main
func main() { println("hello") }
$ GO111MODULE=off GOPATH=/tmp go build -ldflags=-linkmode=external
# hello
loadinternal: cannot find runtime/cgo
$ echo $?
0
$ ./hello
hello

When using external linking for a pure Go program, the linker prints loadinternal: cannot find runtime/cgo message. The linking actually succeeded, and the generated binary works fine.

What did you expect to see?

No error message, like with Go 1.10.

$ GOPATH=/tmp go1.10 build -ldflags=-linkmode=external 
$ ./hello 
hello

What did you see instead?

Spurious loadinternal: cannot find runtime/cgo error message.

[cherrymui]

This also happens in module mode:

$ go mod init hello
go: creating new go.mod: module hello
$ GO111MODULE=on go build -ldflags=-linkmode=external 
# hello
loadinternal: cannot find runtime/cgo

But it does not happen if the file name (hello.go) is given explicitly.

$ go build -ldflags=-linkmode=external hello.go 
$

[julieqiu]

/cc @jayconrod @bcmills

[bcmills]

I can reproduce the failure. I'm bisecting it now to try to get some idea of how it broke.

[bcmills]

git bisect points to CL 129059 (CC @rsc @alandonovan).

[bcmills]

This is a result of the -ldflags=-linkmode=external flag now (correctly) being passed when compiling the hello package, which reveals a typestate bug in load.PackagesAndErrors.

The decision in the LinkerDeps function about whether to add the runtime/cgo dependency is based on whether the -ldflags=-linkmode=external flag is set for the package, which itself depends on whether CmdlinePkg flag is set:

go/src/cmd/go/internal/load/flag.go

Line 43 in 19966e9

match := func(p *Package) bool { return p.Internal.CmdlinePkg || p.Internal.CmdlineFiles } // default predicate with no pattern

That field is set after the call to loadImport:

go/src/cmd/go/internal/load/pkg.go

Lines 1962 to 1964 in 19966e9

	p := loadImport(pre, pkg, base.Cwd, nil, &stk, nil, 0)
	p.Match = append(p.Match, m.Pattern)
	p.Internal.CmdlinePkg = true

However, by that point loadImport has already called load on the package:

go/src/cmd/go/internal/load/pkg.go

Line 511 in 19966e9

p.load(stk, bp, err)

...and load is what's supposed to figure out the implicit linker dependencies:

go/src/cmd/go/internal/load/pkg.go

Line 1534 in 19966e9

for _, dep := range LinkerDeps(p) {

[rsc]

@cherrymui, unless this is important for you for some reason, we'd like to postpone the fix to Go 1.14. It's subtle code.

/cc @bcmills

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/176217 mentions this issue: cmd/go/internal/work: set CmdlinePkg in loadImport instead of after

[cherrymui]

@cherrymui, unless this is important for you for some reason, we'd like to postpone the fix to Go 1.14. It's subtle code.

Sure, it is fine to postpone.

[michael-obermueller]

We would like to propose to reconsider the priority fixing this issue. The implication of it is, that such Go binaries have no runtime/cgo dependency which means they do not create threads using pthread_create but instead the clone system call.

Preloaded (LD_PRELOAD) shared objects may rely on the fact that Go creates POSIX threads.

[ianlancetaylor]

I certainly think this should be fixed, but I'm not following the concern with LD_PRELOAD shared objects. I don't see how it would be possible to use an LD_PRELOAD with a pure Go program.

[Hollerberg]

@ianlancetaylor: The scenario is very specific, but has a serious impact on existing applications.

A shared object of our (application performance monitoring) product is pre-loaded into Go processes to hook certain Go functions. Customers use -ldflags=-linkmode=external in some cases to enforce dynamically built applications.

As the issue causes iscgo set to false, Go runtime will create threads with clone and not with pthread_create. Thus, pre-loaded C code executed in Go runtime thread context (invoked from hooked Go functions) will crash the application accessing e.g. TLS.

[ianlancetaylor]

OK, that seems not only specific but completely unsupported.

Again, I think this bug should be fixed, but the Go team can't take any responsibility for keeping that kind of pre-loaded library working.

[gopherbot]

Change https://go.dev/cl/472515 mentions this issue: cmd/link/internal/ld: move more of mustLinkExternal into internal/platform

[gopherbot]

Change https://go.dev/cl/477195 mentions this issue: cmd/go: import runtime/cgo when externally linking

[gopherbot]

Change https://go.dev/cl/477397 mentions this issue: cmd/go: skip TestScript/build_static on Darwin

[gopherbot]

Change https://go.dev/cl/477839 mentions this issue: cmd/go: import runtime/cgo when externally linking

[gopherbot]

Change https://go.dev/cl/522239 mentions this issue: cmd/go: error out of linking package main if cgo is required but not enabled

[gopherbot]

Change https://go.dev/cl/569296 mentions this issue: _content/doc: mention cgo requirements for external linking in release notes for Go 1.21 and 1.22