Namespace: go.std.go.build

v1.0

Contents

Summary

Provides a low-level interface to the go/build package.

Package build gathers information about Go packages.

Go Path

The Go path is a list of directory trees containing Go source code.
It is consulted to resolve imports that cannot be found in the standard
Go tree. The default path is the value of the GOPATH environment
variable, interpreted as a path list appropriate to the operating system
(on Unix, the variable is a colon-separated string;
on Windows, a semicolon-separated string;
on Plan 9, a list).

Each directory listed in the Go path must have a prescribed structure:

The src/ directory holds source code. The path below 'src' determines
the import path or executable name.

The pkg/ directory holds installed package objects.
As in the Go tree, each target operating system and
architecture pair has its own subdirectory of pkg
(pkg/GOOS_GOARCH).

If DIR is a directory listed in the Go path, a package with
source in DIR/src/foo/bar can be imported as "foo/bar" and
has its compiled form installed to "DIR/pkg/GOOS_GOARCH/foo/bar.a"
(or, for gccgo, "DIR/pkg/gccgo/foo/libbar.a").

The bin/ directory holds compiled commands.
Each command is named for its source directory, but only
using the final element, not the entire path. That is, the
command with source in DIR/src/foo/quux is installed into
DIR/bin/quux, not DIR/bin/foo/quux. The foo/ is stripped
so that you can add DIR/bin to your PATH to get at the
installed commands.

Here's an example directory layout:

GOPATH=/home/user/gocode

/home/user/gocode/
src/
foo/
bar/ (go code in package bar)
x.go
quux/ (go code in package main)
y.go
bin/
quux (installed command)
pkg/
linux_amd64/
foo/
bar.a (installed package object)

Build Constraints

A build constraint, also known as a build tag, is a line comment that begins

//go:build

that lists the conditions under which a file should be included in the
package. Build constraints may also be part of a file's name
(for example, source_windows.go will only be included if the target
operating system is windows).

See 'go help buildconstraint'
(https://golang.org/cmd/go/#hdr-Build_constraints) for details.

Binary-Only Packages

In Go 1.12 and earlier, it was possible to distribute packages in binary
form without including the source code used for compiling the package.
The package was distributed with a source file not excluded by build
constraints and containing a "//go:binary-only-package" comment. Like a
build constraint, this comment appeared at the top of a file, preceded
only by blank lines and other line comments and with a blank line
following the comment, to separate it from the package documentation.
Unlike build constraints, this comment is only recognized in non-test
Go source files.

The minimal source code for a binary-only package was therefore:

//go:binary-only-package

package mypkg

The source code could include additional Go code. That code was never
compiled but would be processed by tools like godoc and might be useful
as end-user documentation.

"go build" and other commands no longer support binary-only-packages.
Import and ImportDir will still set the BinaryOnly flag in packages
containing these comments for use in tools and error messages.

Index

Legend

Constants

Constants are variables with :const true in their metadata. Joker currently does not recognize them as special; as such, it allows redefining them or their values.

Variables

Functions, Macros, and Special Forms

Types