cmd/go: disabling telemetry causes telemetry files to be written

[AGWA]

Go version

go version go1.23.0 linux/amd64

Output of go env in your module/workspace:

GO111MODULE=''
GOARCH='amd64'
GOBIN=''
GOCACHE='/home/andrew/.cache/go-build'
GOENV='/home/andrew/.config/go/env'
GOEXE=''
GOEXPERIMENT=''
GOFLAGS='-modcacherw'
GOHOSTARCH='amd64'
GOHOSTOS='linux'
GOINSECURE=''
GOMODCACHE='/home/andrew/.go/pkg/mod'
GONOPROXY=''
GONOSUMDB=''
GOOS='linux'
GOPATH='/home/andrew/.go'
GOPRIVATE=''
GOPROXY='https://proxy.golang.org,direct'
GOROOT='/opt/golang/go1.23.0'
GOSUMDB='sum.golang.org'
GOTMPDIR=''
GOTOOLCHAIN='auto'
GOTOOLDIR='/opt/golang/go1.23.0/pkg/tool/linux_amd64'
GOVCS=''
GOVERSION='go1.23.0'
GODEBUG=''
GOTELEMETRY='off'
GOTELEMETRYDIR='/home/andrew/.config/go/telemetry'
GCCGO='gccgo'
GOAMD64='v1'
AR='ar'
CC='gcc'
CXX='g++'
CGO_ENABLED='0'
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 -Wl,--no-gc-sections -fmessage-length=0 -ffile-prefix-map=/tmp/go-build2289507740=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches'

What did you do?

1. Start with an empty home directory
2. go telemetry off
3. ls $HOME/.config/go/telemetry/local

What did you see happen?

I saw telemetry data in this directory:

'[email protected]'	 upload.token   weekends

What did you expect to see?

I expected that this directory would be nonexistent since I have never before run a go command with this home directory, except for a command that expresses my desire to have telemetry disabled.

This wouldn't be an issue if telemetry could be disabled with an environment variable (#68960), and it would be less of an issue if telemetry data were written to a more appropriate location (#68988).

[gabyhelp]

Related Issues and Documentation

• cmd/go: telemetry data should not be in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME #68988
• cmd/go: GOTELEMETRY is not documented by go help environment #68928
• Unknown go command variable GOTELEMETRY - how to disable telemetry? #67424 (closed)
• telemetry.go.dev/privacy: "Internal Server Error" #68859 (closed)
• cmd/go: any invocation creates read-only telemetry configuration file under GOMODCACHE #68946 (closed)
• x/tools/gopls: no datas for gotelemetry #67781 (closed)
• go version is slow and creates junk files #69177 (closed)
• cmd/go: "go env GOTELEMETRY" should not be an alias of "go telemetry" #68936 (closed)
• proposal: cmd/go: consider making GOTELEMETRY=off settable #68960 (closed)
• x/telemetry/internal/counter: ErrDisabled references non-existent GOTELEMETRY environment variable #65503 (closed)

_{(Emoji vote if this was helpful or unhelpful; more detailed feedback welcome in this discussion.)}

[dmitshur]

CC @matloob, @samthanawalla, @findleyr.

[hyangah]

Once go telemetry clean is implemented, go telemetry off && go telemetry clean could do the job.

[gopherbot]

Change https://go.dev/cl/611456 mentions this issue: cmd/go: add an exception for 'go telemetry off' to not open counters

[gopherbot]

Change https://go.dev/cl/611876 mentions this issue: cmd/go/testdata/script: skip part of test on unsupported platforms

[sergeevabc]

+1 for go telemetry clean, or at least tell which files and folders are safe to remove?

$ tree %APPDATA%\go\telemetry
.
├── local
│   ├── [email protected]
│   ├── [email protected]
│   ├── [email protected]
│   ├── [email protected]
│   ├── [email protected]
│   ├── [email protected]
│   ├── [email protected]
│   ├── [email protected]
│   ├── local.2025-03-01.json
│   ├── local.2025-03-08.json
│   ├── local.2025-03-15.json
│   ├── local.2025-03-22.json
│   ├── local.2025-03-29.json
│   ├── local.2025-04-05.json
│   ├── local.2025-04-12.json
│   ├── local.2025-04-19.json
│   ├── local.2025-05-03.json
│   ├── upload.token
│   └── weekends
├── mode
└── upload