go.mod's replace directive is a local configuration option, different developers could have the local module source in different locations.

It just feels wrong including this option in a file that has to be committed to a repo from which others can use the module (be it private or public).

Is there a way to specify this somewhere else than in go.mod?

Example:
https://github.com/Drean64/c64/blob/master/src/go.mod#L5

module github.com/Drean64/c64
go 1.18
replace github.com/Drean64/cpu6502 => ../../cpu6502/src

CodePudding user response：

different developers could have the local module source in different locations.

By using a relative path, you could reference a folder which is a submodule of your main repository project, which means all developer would benefit from the same local replace directive.

Is there a way to specify this somewhere else than in go.mod?

It does not seem to be, the replace directive is linked to go.mod, and:

replace directives only apply in the main module’s go.mod file and are ignored in other modules.

CodePudding user response：

replace directive temporary solution when you want to use local modules but I prefer to use build flags, below -modfile is good and you can use it while building or running the program.

example : go run -modfile=local.mod main.go

-modfile file
        in module aware mode, read (and possibly write) an alternate go.mod
        file instead of the one in the module root directory. A file named
        "go.mod" must still be present in order to determine the module root
        directory, but it is not accessed. When -modfile is specified, an
        alternate go.sum file is also used: its path is derived from the
        -modfile flag by trimming the ".mod" extension and appending ".sum".

I do use replace directive only when needs a temporary solution.