go/gcexportdata: document 2 releases + tip policy

And update the package documentation.

Fixes golang/go#68898
Updates golang/go#69491

Change-Id: Ib01ef9ca4dfa204410c7b3e8d9439ddfee2d76f5
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/tools/+/623638
LUCI-TryBot-Result: Go LUCI <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Robert Findley <[email protected]>

go/gcexportdata/gcexportdata.go

@@ -2,22 +2,64 @@
 // Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
 // license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
 
-// Package gcexportdata provides functions for locating, reading, and
-// writing export data files containing type information produced by the
-// gc compiler.  This package supports go1.7 export data format and all
-// later versions.
-//
-// Although it might seem convenient for this package to live alongside
-// go/types in the standard library, this would cause version skew
-// problems for developer tools that use it, since they must be able to
-// consume the outputs of the gc compiler both before and after a Go
-// update such as from Go 1.7 to Go 1.8.  Because this package lives in
-// golang.org/x/tools, sites can update their version of this repo some
-// time before the Go 1.8 release and rebuild and redeploy their
-// developer tools, which will then be able to consume both Go 1.7 and
-// Go 1.8 export data files, so they will work before and after the
-// Go update. (See discussion at https://golang.org/issue/15651.)
-package gcexportdata // import "golang.org/x/tools/go/gcexportdata"
+// Package gcexportdata provides functions for reading and writing
+// export data, which is a serialized description of the API of a Go
+// package including the names, kinds, types, and locations of all
+// exported declarations.
+//
+// The standard Go compiler (cmd/compile) writes an export data file
+// for each package it compiles, which it later reads when compiling
+// packages that import the earlier one. The compiler must thus
+// contain logic to both write and read export data.
+// (See the "Export" section in the cmd/compile/README file.)
+//
+// The [Read] function in this package can read files produced by the
+// compiler, producing [go/types] data structures. As a matter of
+// policy, Read supports export data files produced by only the last
+// two Go releases plus tip; see https://go.dev/issue/68898. The
+// export data files produced by the compiler contain additional
+// details related to generics, inlining, and other optimizations that
+// cannot be decoded by the [Read] function.
+//
+// In files written by the compiler, the export data is not at the
+// start of the file. Before calling Read, use [NewReader] to locate
+// the desired portion of the file.
+//
+// The [Write] function in this package encodes the exported API of a
+// Go package ([types.Package]) as a file. Such files can be later
+// decoded by Read, but cannot be consumed by the compiler.
+//
+// # Future changes
+//
+// Although Read supports the formats written by both Write and the
+// compiler, the two are quite different, and there is an open
+// proposal (https://go.dev/issue/69491) to separate these APIs.
+//
+// Under that proposal, this package would ultimately provide only the
+// Read operation for compiler export data, which must be defined in
+// this module (golang.org/x/tools), not in the standard library, to
+// avoid version skew for developer tools that need to read compiler
+// export data both before and after a Go release, such as from Go
+// 1.23 to Go 1.24. Because this package lives in the tools module,
+// clients can update their version of the module some time before the
+// Go 1.24 release and rebuild and redeploy their tools, which will
+// then be able to consume both Go 1.23 and Go 1.24 export data files,
+// so they will work before and after the Go update. (See discussion
+// at https://go.dev/issue/15651.)
+//
+// The operations to import and export [go/types] data structures
+// would be defined in the go/types package as Import and Export.
+// [Write] would (eventually) delegate to Export,
+// and [Read], when it detects a file produced by Export,
+// would delegate to Import.
+//
+// # Deprecations
+//
+// The [NewImporter] and [Find] functions are deprecated and should
+// not be used in new code. The [WriteBundle] and [ReadBundle]
+// functions are experimental, and there is an open proposal to
+// deprecate them (https://go.dev/issue/69573).
+package gcexportdata
 
 import (
 	"bufio"
@@ -100,6 +142,11 @@ func readAll(r io.Reader) ([]byte, error) {
 // Read reads export data from in, decodes it, and returns type
 // information for the package.
 //
+// Read is capable of reading export data produced by [Write] at the
+// same source code version, or by the last two Go releases (plus tip)
+// of the standard Go compiler. Reading files from older compilers may
+// produce an error.
+//
 // The package path (effectively its linker symbol prefix) is
 // specified by path, since unlike the package name, this information
 // may not be recorded in the export data.
@@ -128,14 +175,26 @@ func Read(in io.Reader, fset *token.FileSet, imports map[string]*types.Package,
 	// (from "version"). Select appropriate importer.
 	if len(data) > 0 {
 		switch data[0] {
-		case 'v', 'c', 'd': // binary, till go1.10
+		case 'v', 'c', 'd':
+			// binary, produced by cmd/compile till go1.10
 			return nil, fmt.Errorf("binary (%c) import format is no longer supported", data[0])
 
-		case 'i': // indexed, till go1.19
+		case 'i':
+			// indexed, produced by cmd/compile till go1.19,
+			// and also by [Write].
+			//
+			// If proposal #69491 is accepted, go/types
+			// serialization will be implemented by
+			// types.Export, to which Write would eventually
+			// delegate (explicitly dropping any pretence at
+			// inter-version Write-Read compatibility).
+			// This [Read] function would delegate to types.Import
+			// when it detects that the file was produced by Export.
 			_, pkg, err := gcimporter.IImportData(fset, imports, data[1:], path)
 			return pkg, err
 
-		case 'u': // unified, from go1.20
+		case 'u':
+			// unified, produced by cmd/compile since go1.20
 			_, pkg, err := gcimporter.UImportData(fset, imports, data[1:], path)
 			return pkg, err