Go Commands

Go useful commands explained

Here are a list of daily Go commands used by developers, which will help you stay productive if you know about them.

go get

Downloads third party packages, by git cloning the repository and installing binaries if any

Example:

# downloads the "errors" package
go get github.com/pkg/errors
o
# downloads and updates the "errors" package
go get -u github.com/pkg/errors

# downloads all packages that the current project imports/uses
go get ./...

# downloads and updates all packages that the current project imports/uses
go get -u ./...

go run

Compiles and builds the project, after which it generates a binary in a temporary location then executes that binary

Example:

# Compiles "main.go" and executes the binary
go run main.go

# Compiles "main.go" and "package.go" and executes the binary
go run main.go package.go

# Compiles all ".go" files in CWD and executes the binary
go run *.go

go build

Compiles and creates executable binary from source code

Example:

go build

go build -o executable-name

go test

Runs all Go tests which are located inside _test.go files from current working directory

Example:

go test ./...
go test -shuffle
go test -random
go test -run
go test -v

go install

Compiles Go code from binary.go and creates a binary called "bin" then places it inside $GOPATH/bin directory

In order for this to work the file need to in package main and have a main function

Example:

go install bin.go

go fmt

Formats all Go code from current working directory

Example:

go fmt ./...

go vet

Checks for potential Go issues in current working directory

Example:

go vet ./...

There’s an enhanced version of go fmt available called goimports that also cleans up your import statements. It puts them in alphabetical order, removes unused imports, and attempts to guess any unspecified imports.

goimports -l -w .

The -l flag tells goimports to print the files with incorrect formatting to the console. The -w flag tells goimports to modify the files in-place. The . specifies the files to be scanned: everything in the current directory and all of its subdirectories.

Rather than use separate tools, you can run multiple tools together with golangci-lint. It combines golint, govet, and an ever-increasing set of other code quality tools. Once it is installed, you run golangci-lint with the command:

golangci-lint run

go env

Displays all environment variables that Go uses and their values

go help

Displays a list of all available Go commands. Have fun and play around with them

For more info about Go commands check out Go Commands