How to build executable with name other than Golang package

Question

Is it possible to build (install, go get, etc) an executable with the name foobar if my Golang package name is one of the following:

• github.com/username/go-foobar
• github.com/username/foobar-tools

and has main.go in the package root?

Solution

go build -o <your desired name>

You can specify the executable name using the -o switch with go build. For your example it would look something like: cd $GOPATH/github.com/username/go-foobar && go build -o foobar. However, you're just left with the executable in the package's folder -- you still need to install it somehow.

However, I don't know of any way to specify that for someone using go get github.com/username/go-foobar to install your tool. For instance, see this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/33243591/2415176

If you're not worried about people installing your tool with go get, this is the kind of thing you can wrap in a Makefile.

Comments

[JimB]

go build -o foobar github.com/username/go-foobar?

[Brent Bradburn]

named files must be .go files: Order of arguments matters with go build -o

[E235]

If you want to do it for a specific file main.go and you want to call it myapp run it like that: go build -o myapp main.go.

[Arnold Schrijver]

Maybe a noob question, but isn't this possible to set in code as a default. I have the case where a project has an ./example dir to be installed. I'd like the binary name to be <project-name>-example by default, without having to specify on cmd-line every time. Is the only way to set the package name accordingly?

[Craig Kelly]

I can't think of anything like that @ArnoldSchrijver - of the various special source options like build tags or the upcoming embedding, I don't think anything lets you change build tags from the source code. I suppose you might be able to hack something together with go generate side effects, but that seems like a path fraught with disaster. The easiest would probably just be a script that builds the examples the way you want.