gen_version.go broken for releases (git pulls seems to be okayish when you pull the deps by hand)

[galitus]

Hey,

in your Makefile the VERSION and BuildID string is created with gen_version.go,
but it seems, it is broken since release 1.10.0 and not getting any output at all.

I tried to upgrade the package on gentoo and wanted to create the strings for my ebuild for 1.14.0
with the gen_version.go but no success.

So, I checked which strings where used to build the official docker containers but there is none.

for 1.9.0 (which is fine):
Status: Downloaded newer image for cesanta/docker_auth:1.9.0 I0306 09:45:45.214969 1 main.go:246] docker_auth 20211207 build 20211207-204332/1.9.0@636c09af

starting with 1.10.0:
Status: Downloaded newer image for cesanta/docker_auth:1.10.0 I0306 09:46:34.312446 1 main.go:246] docker_auth build

BTW gen_version.go is not working at all unless, you "go get" the deps on your own,
because it is not in the go.mod and so also not in go.sum and will not be downloaded automatically.
Since today I had no idea of go coding at all and learned that it could be a problem to keep these deps in the go.mod
because the gen_version.go is only a helper file and not part of the project and go only keeps everything needed from the project in the go.mod.
And even when you get the deps before the build, the build breaks because the go.mod was modified and go.sum is not updated.

docker/distribution@v2.8.2-beta.1+incompatible/context/http.go:14:2: missing go.sum entry for module providing package github.com/sirupsen/logrus (imported by github.com/docker/distribution/registry/auth/token); to add: go get github.com/docker/distribution/registry/auth/token@v2.8.2-beta.1+incompatible

If you go mod tidy the 2 deps for the gen_version will be dropped again.....

When the gen_version.go command works, you get the following.

with release 1.14.0 I get this error while running "go run ./gen_version.go":
..... go: downloading github.com/cloudflare/circl v1.6.1 2026/03/06 10:51:02 repository does not exist exit status 1

git main version:
go run ./gen_version.go main 20260306/main@c67e1750+

When I pull the specific commit for 1.14.0, gen_version.go works:
1.14.0 20260306/1.14.0@d3f46f79+

So, my guess is, it only works for git pulls but not the released tarballs, but it maybe should?
Also the deps for gen_version.go should be in go.mod and go.sum because otherwise it won't run which leads to no Version and BuildID
at all, even in the docker builds.

I tested a lot, hopefully I didn't mess something up in my report.
Or drop the version and build string at all?

Greetings