Go language: Change the build folder when running "go run"

Question

Using Go on Windows, whenever I execute go run myprog.go from the console, Go builds a new executable with a random name somewhere on my C drive.

Is there a way to configure it so it will always build the file to a specific location, and preferably to also avoid the randomness of the name? (i.e., always build to D:\Temp\LastBuild.exe).

I was able to find some info that did not help when doing go help run and go help build. The latter had an output flag -o outfile but it is not accepted in go run.

Any help is appreciated.

kostix · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-08 17:21:36Z

2

Do not use go run. It's intended for quick testing out snippets of code the size of a single screenful of lines.

The working approach is

Edit the code.
go build it.
Run your executable which will have predictable name.
Go to step (1).

If you write tests in parallel with the implementation (and you should), this changes to

Edit the code.
Edit the test suite.
go test it.
Go to step (1).

Please see this recent thread on the mailing list for more insight on the same subject.

answered Oct 8, 2014 at 17:21

kostix

56.2k14 gold badges104 silver badges188 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

DannyB Over a year ago

Ok - I erased my last comment, I take it back. I have changed my sublime build system to run go build -o D:/Dev/Go/debug.exe && D:/Dev/Go/debug.exe instead of go run $file_name - which gets me the result I needed without losing anything. Thanks.

kostix Over a year ago

@DannyB, If you're using Sublime, consider using GoSublime with it: it has all the necessary stuff for integrating Sublime's own build system with the go tool.

DannyB Over a year ago

thanks, I am using Sublime and the excellent GoSublime. But I am not crazy about its build system. So I built my own. The truth is that I would still love to have the ability to change where go run and go test build their binaries.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Go language: Change the build folder when running "go run"

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related