gistfile1.txt

# Create a GCP debian-9 (stretch) instance and then SSH into it
# gcloud compute instances create test-please --zone=us-east4-c --machine-type=n1-standard-2 --subnet=default --network-tier=PREMIUM --maintenance-policy=MIGRATE --scopes=https://www.googleapis.com/auth/devstorage.read_only,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.write,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/monitoring.write,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/servicecontrol,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/service.management.readonly,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/trace.append --image=debian-9-stretch-v20190423 --image-project=debian-cloud --boot-disk-size=10GB --boot-disk-type=pd-standard --boot-disk-device-name=test-please
# gcloud compute ssh test-please

# From there, run the following two blocks of code to initialize the environment and run the go tests

# setup please pre-reqs
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install -y --fix-missing golang-1.11 python3-pip git default-jre default-jdk
mkdir -p ~/.config/please
cat <<EOF > ~/.config/please/plzconfig
[Build]
path = /usr/lib/go-1.11/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
[Go]
goroot = /usr/lib/go-1.11/
EOF

# setup please-examples and run go tests
mkdir ~/src
git clone https://github.com/thought-machine/please-examples.git
cd please-examples
./pleasew test -i go -o proto.language:go

To accomplish the same thing locally using goenv and pyenv to manage my local installs of each, I did the following:

cd ~/src/please-examples
pyenv local 3.7.3   # create .python-version
goenv local 1.12.4  # create .go-version
cat <<EOF > localize
#!/bin/bash
cat <<EOF > .plzconfig.local
[Build]
path = $(dirname $(goenv which go)):$(dirname $(pyenv which python)):/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin

[Go]
goroot = $(dirname $(dirname $(goenv which go)))
EOF
chmod u+x localize
./localize  # create a .plzconfig.local file based on my active python and go versions
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y default-jdk default-jre # I don't care about java, but I need it to keep plz happy here

Now, when I run the pleasew command to run the tests, I get the same error as I do on the VM.