go-jsonnet

Author: Ludovic HENRY ludovic.henry@qti.qualcomm.com
Date: 2026-08-14
Scope: RISC-V (riscv64/linux) support status for go-jsonnet
Audience: Technical leadership, resource allocation strategy
Verification policy: Every claim is cross-referenced to a primary upstream source. Items that could not be verified against a second source are marked [NEEDS VERIFICATION].

1. Project Overview

go-jsonnet is a pure-Go implementation of the Jsonnet data templating language, hosted under the google GitHub organization. It is not affiliated with CNCF, Apache, or the Linux Foundation. It is not a RISE Project member.

There is no formal governance document (no MAINTAINERS, OWNERS, or CODEOWNERS file). Contributions require signing a Google CLA (individual or corporate), per the CONTRIBUTING file.

All-time contributor rankings by commit count:

Login Name Company Commits
sbarzowski Stanislaw Barzowski (not listed) 168
sparkprime Dave Cunningham Google 93
johnbartholomew John Bartholomew independent 76
alldroll Aleksandr Petrov Meta 20
jbeda Joe Beda independent 18
jaymebrd Jayme Bird ClickHouse 15
seizethedave David Grant Grafana 7

Dave Cunningham (dcunnin@google.com) is listed as package maintainer in .goreleaser.yml. Recent day-to-day maintenance has been handled predominantly by John Bartholomew (independent). The project is effectively Google-governed with community contributions but no co-governance arrangement with any company.

Community culture on new ports: the single RISC-V dependency bump (PR #284) sat open for 17 days with one “Any news on this?” ping before being silently merged with a one-word “Thanks” from the maintainer. No objections were raised. No policy exists on platform tiers.

2. Port History and Upstreaming Timeline

Date Event Source
2019-05-31 carlosedp opens PR #284: bump golang.org/x/sys to a version containing riscv64 syscall support PR #284
2019-06-17 PR #284 merged by sparkprime (Dave Cunningham, Google); commit 3ad064e PR #284
2019-09-16 v0.14.0 released – first tagged release containing the merged riscv64 dependency bump Releases page

Key contributor: carlosedp (Carlos Eduardo, carlosedp@gmail.com) – a community contributor known for the riscv-bringup project that performed routine dependency bumps across the Go ecosystem in 2019.

The port is fully upstream in the sense that the one prerequisite change (PR #284) is merged and in all releases since v0.14.0. go-jsonnet is pure Go with no architecture-specific code, so there is nothing further to upstream. No tracking issue was ever opened.

3. Upstream Support Tier

No explicit tiered platform support policy exists in this project.

The project is pure Go (CGO_ENABLED=0 in all release builds). The Go toolchain classifies linux/riscv64 as Tier 2: build and run supported but the race detector is too slow for production use, and the buildbot infrastructure for riscv64 is intermittently broken (golang/go#78161, golang/go#68862, golang/go#70401). The go-jsonnet project inherits this tier implicitly.

Comparison table:

Criterion amd64 arm64 riscv64
Compiles from source Yes Yes Yes
Official release binaries Yes Yes No
CI test coverage Yes (active) No (commented out) No (not listed)
Distro packaging (Debian/Ubuntu) N/A N/A N/A – project not packaged in any distro
.goreleaser.yml build target Yes Yes No

4. Technical Architecture and RISC-V-Specific Subsystems

go-jsonnet contains no architecture-specific source code of any kind. The full component inventory:

Component Description Arch-specific code riscv64 status
Lexer / Parser Pure Go None Full (compiles, runs)
Interpreter / VM Pure Go None Full
Formatter (jsonnetfmt) Pure Go None Full
Linter (jsonnet-lint) Pure Go None Full
Dependency tool (jsonnet-deps) Pure Go None Full
C bindings (c-bindings/libjsonnet.cpp) C++ wrapper, no arch code None Full (no special cross-compiler needed beyond a riscv64 g++)

There are no JIT backends, no SIMD dispatch, no hand-written assembly (.S) files, no RVV/Zba/Zbb/Zbc/Zbs usage, and no crypto assembly. GitHub code search for riscv, riscv64, vfloat32m1_t, rvv, and jit against repo:google/go-jsonnet returns zero results in source files. The only riscv64 reference in the entire repository is in MODULE.bazel.lock, which lists standard Go toolchain download URLs including go1.24.5.linux-riscv64.tar.gz – these are upstream Go distribution binaries, not project code.

Comparison table:

Component amd64 arm64 riscv64
Interpreter Pure Go Pure Go Pure Go
Lexer Pure Go Pure Go Pure Go
C bindings No arch code No arch code No arch code
SIMD / vector None (N/A) None (N/A) None (N/A)
Assembly None None None

5. Build System, Cross-Compilation, and Toolchain

go-jsonnet is a standard Go module. No CMake, autoconf, or custom build script exists.

Standard Go cross-compilation (recommended):

GOOS=linux GOARCH=riscv64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build ./cmd/jsonnet
GOOS=linux GOARCH=riscv64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build ./cmd/jsonnetfmt
GOOS=linux GOARCH=riscv64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build ./cmd/jsonnet-lint
GOOS=linux GOARCH=riscv64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build ./cmd/jsonnet-deps

Required Go version: 1.24+ (go.mod declares go 1.24.5). riscv64 cross-compilation in Go has been stable since Go 1.17. CGO_ENABLED=0 is the correct setting and matches what goreleaser uses for all release targets. No QEMU is required for build; QEMU would be required only to run tests natively.

Bazel cross-compilation:

bazel build --platforms=@io_bazel_rules_go//go/toolchain:linux_riscv64 //cmd/jsonnet

Requires Bazel 8.5.1 and rules_go 0.59.0 (pinned in .bazelversion). The MODULE.bazel.lock confirms that the Go 1.24.5 and Go 1.25.0 SDKs include linux_riscv64 tarballs and their SHA-256 hashes.

CGO / C-bindings caveat: The C bindings (c-bindings/libjsonnet.cpp) require CGO_ENABLED=1 and a C++ cross-compiler for riscv64 (e.g., riscv64-linux-gnu-g++). The CI matrix uses CGO_ENABLED=1 for the native amd64 test job only. No documented riscv64 CGO build procedure exists. For pure-Go binaries, this is not relevant.

No known build failures for riscv64. The .goreleaser.yml omits riscv64 from its targets – adding it would require a one-line change per binary target.

6. Feature Coverage and Gap Analysis vs arm64 and amd64

Feature matrix:

Feature amd64 arm64 riscv64
Jsonnet evaluation Full Full Full
Formatting (jsonnetfmt) Full Full Full
Linting (jsonnet-lint) Full Full Full
Dependency resolution (jsonnet-deps) Full Full Full
C library (libjsonnet.so) Full Full Full (requires riscv64 C++ cross-compiler)
Native binary release Yes Yes No
CI-tested Yes No No

Functional gaps: None. go-jsonnet compiles and runs on riscv64 without modification.

Performance gaps: No riscv64-specific performance data exists. The project has no SIMD or vectorized paths on any architecture, so there is no differential to measure.

Floating-point semantics: Historical cross-architecture tests revealed floating-point divergences on armv7hl, i686, aarch64, ppc64le, and s390x in transcendental functions (pow, atan, tan) and in 32-bit integer overflow behavior (issue #362, closed 2020, fixed by adding tolerance in numeric tests via PR #364). The s390x variant of this issue (#767) remains open; the maintainer has stated s390x is unsupported. riscv64 would face the same category of floating-point divergence if tested, particularly in transcendental functions, but no riscv64-specific instance has been reported.

Security hardening: No hardening gaps. The project uses CGO_ENABLED=0 by default, which eliminates C attack surface. No FIPS mode is required or supported. golang/go#74683 (FIPS 140 + PIE broken on RISC-V) does not affect this project.

7. CI/CD Infrastructure

No riscv64 CI exists in any configuration file in the repository.

Direct file inventory:

  • .github/workflows/ci.yml: runs on ubuntu-latest (x86_64). The test matrix has two active entries, both GOARCH: amd64. Four architectures (arm64, 386, ppc64le, and one other) are present but entirely commented out. The string “riscv” does not appear anywhere in this file.
  • .github/workflows/release.yml: triggers on workflow_dispatch. Runs GoReleaser on ubuntu-latest. No architecture matrix.
  • .github/workflows/publish-python.yml: builds Python wheels on ubuntu-22.04, ubuntu-22.04-arm, macos-14, macos-latest. No riscv64 runner. No QEMU emulation.
  • .goreleaser.yml: release build matrix lists goarch: [386, amd64, arm, arm64] for linux/windows/darwin. riscv64 is absent.
  • No .gitlab-ci.yml, no Jenkinsfile, no .cirrus.yml exist.

No RISE runners are used. go-jsonnet does not appear in the RISE runner top-users list (six-week sample, March-May 2026).

Comparison table:

CI aspect amd64 arm64 riscv64
Test job exists Yes No (commented out) No (not listed)
Release binary built Yes Yes No
QEMU emulation N/A N/A N/A
RISE runner No No No

8. Distribution and Release Status

GitHub Releases: The latest release is v0.22.0. All releases (v0.22.0, v0.22.0-rc1, v0.21.0, v0.21.0-rc2, v0.21.0-rc1) ship prebuilt tarballs and .deb packages for: linux_386, linux_amd64, linux_arm64, linux_armv6, darwin (amd64 and arm64), and windows. No release asset contains “riscv64” in its filename. Releases page

PyPI: HTTP 404. go-jsonnet is not published on PyPI. Not applicable.

Debian unstable: tracker.debian.org/pkg/golang-github-google-go-jsonnet returns HTTP 404. No Debian source package exists for this project. Not packaged.

Ubuntu 24.04 (noble): packages.ubuntu.com search returns zero results for go-jsonnet. Not packaged.

Arch Linux RISC-V: The archriscv.felixc.at search returned no package listing for go-jsonnet. Given the absence from Debian and Ubuntu, an independent Arch RISC-V port is unlikely [NEEDS VERIFICATION].

RISE wheel builder: Not applicable – go-jsonnet has no PyPI presence.

What a user on riscv64 must do today:

GOOS=linux GOARCH=riscv64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build ./cmd/jsonnet

This requires a working Go 1.24+ toolchain. No prebuilt binary, no distro package, and no container image is available for riscv64.

9. Dependencies

Summary table:

Dependency Role riscv64 build riscv64 test riscv64 release Blocking issues
Go toolchain (1.24.5+) Runtime, compiler, stdlib Tier 2 supported Partial – race detector too slow; builder intermittently broken No official Tier 1 binaries for riscv64 golang/go#78161 (memory corruption, open); golang/go#68862 (SIGSEGV in preemptone, open); golang/go#74683 (FIPS+PIE broken, open, does not affect this project); golang/go#70401 (build failures, open)
golang.org/x/sys v0.38.0 (indirect) OS-level syscall abstractions Builds – riscv64 epoll_event and endian fixes merged (golang/sys#38, #40, both closed) No open riscv64 issues Not released as binaries None
golang.org/x/crypto v0.45.0 (indirect) Cryptographic primitives Builds – pure Go fallback, no riscv64 assembly No open riscv64 issues Not released as binaries None
github.com/fatih/color v1.18.0 Colored terminal output (CLI only) Builds – pure Go, delegates to golang.org/x/sys No riscv64 issues N/A None
github.com/mattn/go-isatty v0.0.20 (indirect) TTY detection Builds – uses golang.org/x/sys, riscv64 supported since 2019 No open riscv64 issues N/A None
github.com/mattn/go-colorable v0.1.13 (indirect) Windows color output Builds – pure Go N/A N/A None
github.com/sergi/go-diff v1.3.1 Diff formatting (lint output) Builds – pure Go No riscv64 issues N/A None
sigs.k8s.io/yaml v1.4.0 YAML/JSON interop Builds – pure Go No riscv64 issues N/A None

All direct and indirect dependencies are pure Go with no architecture-specific gaps. The one meaningful risk is in the Go toolchain itself (Tier 2 riscv64, open stability bugs), not in go-jsonnet or its dependencies.

The Go toolchain riscv64 issues of note:

  • golang/go#78161: memory corruption/panic on linux/riscv64, open.
  • golang/go#68862: SIGSEGV in preemptone on riscv64, open.
  • golang/go#70401: gotip-linux-riscv64 build failures, open.
  • golang/go#74683: fips140 broken with -buildmode=pie on riscv64, open – does not affect go-jsonnet (CGO_ENABLED=0, no FIPS mode).

11. Known Bugs and Active Issues

Format and correctness bugs (all platforms including riscv64, all open as of August 2026):

ID Title Status Severity Notes
#890 Bug: std.format %g precision threshold and zero handling Open Medium Two sub-bugs: threshold uses > precision instead of >= precision; %.0g of 0.0 emits "0e+00" instead of "0"
#889 Format operator does not detect negative zero (-0.0) sign Open Low "%f" % (-0.0) produces "0.000000" instead of "-0.000000"; uses s < 0 instead of math.Signbit(s)
#888 std.format %g produces wrong output for small numbers Open Medium "%.3g" % 0.001234 produces "0" instead of "0.00123"
#886 std.abs(0) incorrectly returns -0 (negative zero) Open Low Logic error in abs implementation
#785 Pathological performance with O(n) objects Open High std.foldl with object merging creates O(n) lookup chains; O(n^2) or worse total cost
#784 Performance regression between v0.20.0 and master Open Medium 1.44x slowdown on bench.07.jsonnet measured on Apple M1; master unexpectedly using 3.5 CPU cores vs 1 on v0.20.0
#874 fix: avoid exponential blowup when extendedObject becomes a DAG Open PR High DAG sharing in + on objects causes 2^n visits; fix shows ~2200x improvement on reproducer; not yet merged
#767 pow6 and stdlib_smoke_test fail on s390x Open Low Maintainer states s390x unsupported; floating-point overflow edge case; riscv64 not affected but indicates same class of issue could appear

Historical cross-arch floating-point issues (now resolved):

  • #362 (closed 2020): test failures on armv7hl, i686, aarch64, ppc64le, s390x due to transcendental function rounding differences. Fixed via tolerance in tests (PR #364).
  • #502 (closed): i686-only smoke test failure.

None of the open bugs (#886-#890, #784, #785, #874) are architecture-specific. They affect all platforms equally.

12. Objections and Upstream Blockers

No stated objections to riscv64 exist. The single riscv64-related PR (#284) was merged without controversy.

Technical blockers:

  1. No CI testing: riscv64 is not in the CI matrix. Adding it would require either a riscv64 GitHub Actions runner (not publicly available from GitHub) or QEMU emulation. QEMU-based Go test runs are significantly slower, which may explain why arm64 and ppc64le are commented out in the current CI matrix.
  2. No release binary: .goreleaser.yml omits riscv64. Adding it is a one-line-per-target change. No technical barrier, only a maintainer decision.
  3. Go toolchain Tier 2: Upstream Go runtime instability on riscv64 (golang/go#78161, golang/go#68862) means that even with a CI job, intermittent failures are possible from the runtime layer rather than go-jsonnet itself.

Organizational blockers:

  • Google CLA required for contributions. A PR to add riscv64 to .goreleaser.yml would be the appropriate path and is a low-effort change.
  • The de-facto maintainer (Dave Cunningham, Google) last merged a PR in 2019 for RISC-V. Recent activity is from John Bartholomew (independent). Response latency for PRs is unknown from available data.

Acceptance probability for a riscv64 addition to goreleaser: high, given the pure-Go nature and the precedent of the 2019 merge.

13. Investment Analysis

RISE has no involvement with go-jsonnet. No work has been funded or completed by RISE for this project.

13.1 Functional Enablement

go-jsonnet already builds and runs correctly on riscv64. No functional enablement work is needed.

13.2 Performance Optimization

go-jsonnet has no architecture-specific performance code on any platform. There are no SIMD paths to add. The open performance issues (#784, #785, #874) are algorithmic bugs affecting all architectures. Fixing them benefits riscv64 equally but is not riscv64-specific work.

No riscv64 benchmark data exists. Benchmarking go-jsonnet on riscv64 hardware and comparing to x86_64/arm64 would establish a baseline but is not expected to show architecture-specific gaps.

13.3 CI/CD Infrastructure

Adding riscv64 to CI requires one of:

  • A QEMU-based CI job using runs-on: ubuntu-latest with docker run --platform linux/riscv64 or cgo-free cross-test – minimal engineering effort but slow runtime.
  • A native riscv64 GitHub Actions runner – depends on external runner availability.
  • RISE-hosted riscv64 runners – applicable if RISE runner infrastructure supports GitHub Actions workflows for this project.

Adding riscv64 to .goreleaser.yml: one line per binary target (four binaries: jsonnet, jsonnetfmt, jsonnet-lint, jsonnet-deps). Goreleaser cross-compiles natively. This is a half-day change.

13.4 Ecosystem Enablement

go-jsonnet is not packaged in Debian or Ubuntu, for any architecture. Adding riscv64 to the release binary is a prerequisite for packaging, but the packaging gap is an upstream distro issue independent of riscv64.

13.5 Summary Table

Area Work Item Effort (person-weeks) Owner Priority
CI/CD Add riscv64 to .goreleaser.yml release targets 0.1 Community PR (Google CLA required) High
CI/CD Add riscv64 test job to .github/workflows/ci.yml via QEMU 0.2 Community PR Medium
Performance Benchmark go-jsonnet on riscv64 hardware vs x86_64/arm64 0.5 RISE or Qualcomm Low
Bugs Fix open format string correctness bugs (#886-#890) 0.5 Community (multiple reporters already filed) Medium
Bugs Merge or supersede anti-DAG-blowup PR #874 0.3 Upstream maintainer decision High (all-arch correctness)

No functional enablement investment is needed. The two high-priority CI/CD items are low-effort changes whose main dependency is maintainer review bandwidth.

14. Updates

No updates yet – initial report dated 2026-08-14.

15. References