Looks like this started with golang/text@2cb4393 "message/pipeline: use ssa and callgraph":

Specifically on this line where there is no check whether Program.Package's returned PackageInfo is nil.

@mpvl, I guess the question is: should the output be an error or blank?

I've also hit this as I'm testing the library. IMO the executable should say that there is no translation strings to extract.
However I'd say that the extract command doesn't work per se.

func (me *LoginFormData) Validate(r *http.Request) error {
	T := context.GetDataFromContext(r.Context()).Trans

	 _= T.Sprint("The email address you entered is not valid")) //TRANS:

	return nil
}

Will also fail with above error.. And I think this will be a common usecase

FWIW I've started to dig deeper into this issue and this is what I found.

I get this error when using vendored dependencies with e.g. dep. The reasons seems to be that the x.iprog.Package("golang.org/x/text/message") in ...

pkg := x.prog.Package(x.iprog.Package("golang.org/x/text/message").Pkg)

... is nil because the x.iprog *ssa.Program will only find the vendored dependency (e.g. github.com/myorg/myproject/vendor/golang.org/x/text/message) but not golang.org/x/text/message.

We are having the same issue with vendored dependencies:

gotext: extract failed: pipeline: golang.org/x/text/message is not imported

Is it there a workaround?

@msama In a similar case, adding import _ "golang.org/x/text/message" at the top-level import fixed the issue for me

Having the same issue when using a vendor folder. When the vendor folder is removed, it works. I just revendor afterwards for the moment.

@fgm Hello, how to add import _ "golang.org/x/text/message at the top-level import? Can you share some code snippet?

@dragon9783 this little line is the code snippet: just add it at the top-level package of your library/command (the main package if it's a command)/

I still have the same issue, and import _ "golang.org/x/text/message at the top-level import doesn't seem to solve it.

I have solved the issue by running rm -rf vendor/golang.org/x/text command from the root of the project. Of course for things to work, I also needed to have gotext installed. This can be done by running go get golang.org/x/text/cmd/gotext.

I believe the issue could be solved if binaries of text/message are installed in the GOPATH/bin as well