Unknown go command variable GOTELEMETRY - how to disable telemetry?

[TLINDEN]

Go version

go1.22.1

Output of go env in your module/workspace:

GO111MODULE=''
GOARCH='amd64'
GOBIN=''
GOCACHE='/home/foo/.cache/go-build'
GOENV='/home/foo/.config/go/env'
GOEXE=''
GOEXPERIMENT=''
GOFLAGS=''
GOHOSTARCH='amd64'
GOHOSTOS='linux'
GOINSECURE=''
GOMODCACHE='/home/foo/go/pkg/mod'
GONOPROXY=''
GONOSUMDB=''
GOOS='linux'
GOPATH='/home/foo/go'
GOPRIVATE=''
GOPROXY='https://proxy.golang.org,direct'
GOROOT='/usr/local/go1.22.1.linux-amd64'
GOSUMDB='sum.golang.org'
GOTMPDIR=''
GOTOOLCHAIN='auto'
GOTOOLDIR='/usr/local/go1.22.1.linux-amd64/pkg/tool/linux_amd64'
GOVCS=''
GOVERSION='go1.22.1'
GCCGO='gccgo'
GOAMD64='v1'
AR='ar'
CC='gcc'
CXX='g++'
CGO_ENABLED='1'
GOMOD='/dev/null'
GOWORK=''
CGO_CFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_CPPFLAGS=''
CGO_CXXFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_FFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_LDFLAGS='-O2 -g'
PKG_CONFIG='pkg-config'
GOGCCFLAGS='-fPIC -m64 -pthread -Wl,--no-gc-sections -fmessage-length=0 -ffile-prefix-map=/tmp/go-build24553183=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches'

What did you do?

I've read this issue which links to this telemetry paper, which says, that in order to completely disable telemetry I have to execute go env -w GOTELEMETRY=off.

What did you see happen?

When I do, I get:

go env -w GOTELEMETRY=off
go: unknown go command variable GOTELEMETRY

What did you expect to see?

I'd expect some kind of success message.

As I can see in ~/.config/go/telemetry/ go is already collecting telemetry data, but not uploading it (yet). But I don't trust it and I just want to disable the whole process, because I don't want my compiler to send any telemetry data about my use of it to anyone, however small it might be. From my point of view this is a freaking nightmare!

So, how can I - as of now - shut this down?

[seankhliao]

Unlike many projects, the Go project does not use GitHub Issues for general discussion or asking questions. GitHub Issues are used for tracking bugs and proposals only.

For questions please refer to https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Questions

[TLINDEN]

This was not a question, but indeed a bug. The command go env -w GOTELEMETRY=off does not work. So, either the documentation or the code need to be fixed.

So, please re-open this issue. Thanks.

[randall77]

Read the "[Update ...]" notice at the top of the section where you saw the GOTELEMETRY=off command.

[TLINDEN]

Ok, I found how to turn it off: https://go.dev/doc/telemetry#config

[a-pav]

This snippet turns off telemetry how gotelemetry off command currently does it.

GO_TELEMETRY_DIR="$HOME/.config/go/telemetry";

# Create the directory if it doesn't already exist.
[ ! -d "$GO_TELEMETRY_DIR" ] && mkdir -m 0755 "$GO_TELEMETRY_DIR";

echo "off $(date +%Y-%m-%d)" > "$GO_TELEMETRY_DIR/mode";
chmod 0666 "$GO_TELEMETRY_DIR/mode";

# Remove all gathered telemetry.
[ -d "$GO_TELEMETRY_DIR/local" ] && rm -r "$GO_TELEMETRY_DIR/local";
[ -d "$GO_TELEMETRY_DIR/upload" ] && rm -r "$GO_TELEMETRY_DIR/upload";

I don't like the term telemetry, so I wasn't going to install yet another program with the term in its name just to turn off the thing!