The Go spec has always indicated that package import paths are opaque strings, and that the semantics of interpreting those paths is performed by the go tool.

The Go spec has always indicated that package import paths are opaque strings, and that the semantics of interpreting those paths is performed by the go tool. That said, transforming the package import path into a half-assed file system query language slash dependency management solution is a source of frustration for a problem that has been elegantly solved by DNS. I would love if the Go team redefined package import paths as strings to be resolved by go-dns -- an imaginary package name resolution tool which looks up package imports by resolving paths via records stored in package, workspace, and upstream "nameservers". Or, you know, use Godeps.