Go build
last modified April 11, 2024
In this article we show how to build executables with go build tool in Golang.
Golang comes with the go tool, which manages Go source code. It has
several commands including doc, build, test, and run.
The go build command compiles the packages named by the import paths, along with their dependencies into an executable. It it does not install the executable.
usage: go build [-o output] [build flags] [packages]
This is the syntax of the command.
$ go version go version go1.22.2 linux/amd64
We use Go version 1.22.2.
Go build example
Next we build a simple Go code example.
$ mkdir simple $ cd simple
We create and enter the project directory.
$ go mod init com.zetcode/simple
We create a new module with go mod init command. It produces
a go.mod file.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"runtime"
)
func main() {
go_ver := runtime.Version()
os_ver := runtime.GOOS
arch := runtime.GOARCH
fmt.Println(go_ver)
fmt.Println(os_ver)
fmt.Println(arch)
}
The program prints the Go version, OS name and architecture.
$ go run main.go go run main.go go1.22.2 amd64 linux
The go run command compiles and runs the Go program, but it does
not build any executable.
$ go build $ ls go.mod main.go simple
An executable is built with go build command.
$ ./simple go1.22.2 amd64 linux
We run the binary file.
$ file simple simple: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV) ...
We examine the program with the file tool.
$ go build -o bin/simple $ tree . ├── bin │ └── simple ├── go.mod ├── main.go └── simple
With the -o option, we can output the binary file into a specific
directory.
module com.zetcode/first go 1.22.2
To change the default executable name, we update the last part of the module name.
$ go build $ ./first go1.22.2 amd64 linux
We build and run the program under a different name.
The build process is consists of two steps: compilation and linking. We show
these two steps with the go tool command.
$ go tool compile main.go
We compile the program. A main.o file is produced.
$ file main.o main.o: current ar archive $ ar t main.o __.PKGDEF _go_.o
It is an intermediary archive file.
$ go tool link -o simple main.o
With go tool link, we produce the final executable.
Next, we build the program on Windows. The process is very similar.
$ mkdir simple $ cd simple $ go mod init com.zetcode/simple go: creating new go.mod: module com.zetcode/simple
We create a project directory and then a Go module. We use the same
main.go source file.
$ go build $ ls go.mod main.go simple.exe
We build the program. On Windows, the executable has the .exe
suffix.
$ simple.exe go1.22.2 windows amd64
We run the program.
$ file simple.exe simple.exe: PE32+ executable (console) x86-64, for MS Windows
We examine the program with the file command.
Source
Compile and install the application
In this article we have worked with the go build command.
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